Ends and Beginnings
by cassikat
Summary: She had been given the fatal gift or curse of the mind of a Time Lord, but she wasn't giving up on keeping herself alive. Donna Noble was too stubborn for that, and so was the TARDIS. Another Journey's End fix-it
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Don't own'em, just taking them out for some exercise. And because everyone has to do at least one fix-it at some point, right? ;)

Author's Note: The prologue is pretty much _exactly_ -that- scene in Journey's End. But it's necessary, and I'll be on new territory after this, so this is the only episode to get quoted. And if anyone wants to be a beta for this fic, let me know.

Love for all my readers!

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><p>Prologue: The end of a beginning<p>

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><p>"I thought we'd try the planet Felspoon. Just 'cause. What a good name, Felspoon, apparently it's got mountains that sway in the breeze. Mountains that move - can you imagine?" Donna adjusted a knob as she circled the console, not noticing that the Doctor was uncommonly silent as he leaned against a strut, watching her.<p>

He broke that silence finally, quietly, solemnly asking, "And how do you know that?"

"Because it's in your head. And if it's in your head, it's in mine." Donna smiled, then turned away from the Doctor as she kept circling, flipping a switch or three and frowning faintly while he couldn't see. She could hear the TARDIS, thanks to her brand new mind, but the dear old girl was hard to understand. Still, she could let her hands do what the ship suggested and they could chat later.

"And how does that feel?" The sober question was quiet in comparison to the enthusiasm lacing Donna's voice and he might have winced, just a bit, as she clapped her hands.

"Brilliant! Fantastic! Molto bene! Great big universe, packed into my brain." She barely paused for breath before segueing into another subject altogether, smiling brightly. "You know, you could fix that chameleon circuit if you just try to hotbind the fragment links into superseding the binarybinarybinarybinary," Her voice began to hold traces of panic as she continued repeating that one word - twelve times in all before she managed to cut herself off with a gasp and quickly continued with an unbelievable smile pasted on, and a quick "I'm fine."

The Doctor pushed himself off the strut and watched sorrowfully as Donna paused further along and turned to face him, tense and disturbed and yet carrying on anyway, just like he would. "Nah, never mind Felspoon, y'know who I'd like to meet? Charlie Chaplin. I'll bet he's great, Charlie Chaplin! Shall we do that, shall we go see Charlie Chaplin?" She picked up the TARDIS phone and gestured with it as the rambling babble continually spilled from her, once more out of her control. "Charlie Chester, Charlie Brown, no he's fiction-friction-fiction-fixin-mixin-rixton-brixton." The flow of rhyming words was interrupted with another gasp as she bent over the console from the sudden sharp pain in her head, tentatively touching her hand to her head as she took several pained breaths. "...oh my god..."

The Doctor now stood only a few feet from Donna, his face so still, but his eyes full of pain and sorrow. "Do you know what's happening?"

Donna straightened and barely nodded as she took a shaky breath before answering him, a grimace of disturbed realization distorting her face. "Yeah."

The turmoil in his eyes contradicted his calm facade as he continued. "There's never been a human-Timelord metacrisis before now. And you know why."

"Because there can't be." Donna pushed herself off the console and continued around it as tears welled in her eyes. "I want to stay." Her hands brushed over dials and levers, changing their positions according to the whispers of the TARDIS. It was getting harder to focus, but the old girl pushed through the pain and kept showing her what to do.

"Look at me. Donna, look at me." The Doctor's voice was rough, almost breaking, and it was why she finally looked at him, lower lip quivering.

As was her voice when she spoke again. "I was going to be with you. Forever."

He whispered, as though he could not speak louder around the lump in his throat. "I know."

"The rest of my life, traveling in the TARDIS. The DoctorDonna." He only looked at her and then gently clasped her arms. She looked into his eyes and a choked gasp shook her as she realized what he was going to do.

"I won't! I won't let you take it all from me – I'd rather die!" She pushed him away violently and staggered half 'round the console again, bumping one last knob as she retreated. The central column of the TARDIS pulsed and glowed more brightly than she'd ever seen, the ship made an eerie whistle, and time slowed almost to a halt, freezing the Doctor in place mid-stagger. But not her – she was still free to move.

In that brief moment of stopped time, Donna could feel the TARDIS and her Time Lord mind lay possible futures out before her: to forget – to let the Doctor take her memories and be ignorant again, everyone she knew grieving who she had been while the ghost of her still walked about; to die in excruciating agony but still herself, still the magnificent person she had become; or she could take a dangerous risk. A third choice, that might lead to her death anyway, but one that had the chance of really doing something worthwhile and...correcting something that had gone wrong? Just once, she wished she was a proper Time Lord, it would be so much easier to interpret everything if she only had a big enough brain.

Still, there really was only one choice for Donna, and once it was made she found herself at the portion of the console that contained the main travel controls, her hands racing over buttons, dials, levers and switches while more information was stuffed into her head as the bubble of stopped time fizzled and began to fade as the energy supporting it failed. Her hand was on the last lever – the one used to begin a jaunt through time and space – as the bubble popped and time in the console room returned to it's normal flow.

Before the Doctor could do more than catch his balance, Donna smiled at him through her tears and flipped the lever, beginning to glow greenish-gold. "So long, Doctor. It's been fantastic." One last deep breath, and then she stepped backwards and faded away, green-gold afterimages like ghosts remaining for microseconds before fading as well.

The Doctor stared in stunned disbelief before running to where Donna had last stood, frantically feeling around as though she might still be there, just invisible. "Donna?" There was no answer, no body, just a brief tingle in his fingers before that too was gone.

Terrified and furious, he spun on one heel to glower at his one constant in the universe – a glower that dropped to a simpler scowl as he noted how dim it had become in the console room. "You have a lot of questions to answer, old girl. And somewhere specific to take us very soon."

An inarticulate gurgle of frustration escaped him as the controls reset themselves before he could read the previous co-ordinates – now the co-ordinates were set for Cardiff. He knew his ship had used a lot of energy doing whatever she and Donna had conspired to do, but dammit, Donna was out there somewhere about to burn up and he _had_ to find her! He buried his hands in his hair and tugged hard, pacing back and forth before finally setting his stubborn girl in motion to her preferred destination.

"Fine, I see what has to be, and we'll go to Cardiff. But the nano-second you're done topping up, we ARE going wherever you sent Donna, and no arguing!"


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: The BBC own Doctor Who, Torchwood, and the whole Whoniverse. I'm just playing in their sandbox. With their toys. ;)

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><p>Chapter One: Time-Tunnels are worse than Rollercoasters<p>

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><p>Donna would ordinarily have had no trouble with a rough ride, being a veteran of traveling in the TARDIS. But that hadn't been any regular rough ride – that terrible tube (<em>Time Tunnel<em>, whispered the much quieter Time Lord mind in her head) had been worse than the scariest roller-coaster ever, combined with being inside a washer on spin-cycle. Nauseous and more than a bit wobbly, she staggered a few feet before dropping to her knees to revisit the last several meals she'd had.

When her stomach finally decided to stop rebelling and had settled into an uneasy truce with the rest of her body,, she spat a few times and wiped her mouth with a tissue she'd found in her coat-pocket. An arid breeze toyed with her hair, and a frown knit her brows together while she scowled at the landscape she'd helped the TARDIS dump herself in. "Oh wizard. A bloody desert. First the roller-coaster of evil, now I'm in a desert!"

The call of some sort of bird made her look up, and she yelped and clapped a hand to her eyes to sheild them from the light of two suns. "Oh, and it couldn't _just_ be a desert, oh no! It just -had- to be an _alien_ desert! And me without even a bottle of sunscreen, much less water."

Fortunately she was near a shady spot, and she immediately stumbled the several feet to the nice tall rock and collapsed in it's shade. From her shelter, she glowered at the suns and at the desert for good measure, then leaned back against the rock and rested for a bit until she felt physically ready to trek the hostile landscape. Twenty minutes (_and fifteen seconds_ said that other part of her mind) later, she stretched, scrambled upright, and shielded her eyes while she scanned the arid landscape.

"...scraggly bush, scraggly bush, lizard on a rock, something shiny, 'nother bush...wait, something shiny?" She ventured to the edge of her shade and squinted, hands cupped around her eyes like binoculars. It was definitely something large and shiny, and it was a metallic shiny as opposed to a watery shiny. Didn't matter though – metal that big meant there had to be people of some sort. And people meant water, which she was going to desperately need soon.

"Right. Now I know where I'm going, let's just hope the natives are friendly for a change." She draped her coat over her head in an attempt to keep the suns' harsh light off, and strode off determinedly in the direction of the metal. She was moving pretty briskly for someone in the desert, but most people hadn't gone through a metacrisis, and she had no idea how long it was going to be before that Time Lord mind in her head would act up again and kill her dead.

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><p>An hour later, Donna was sweating, panting, and stumbling along, still trying to reach her goal. A rock she hadn't paid enough attention to rolled under her foot, and she yelped and went down, one hand splayed and half-buried in the sand, one abraded from landing on another, flatter rock. She stayed that way for a minute or two until the heat trapped under her coat made her miserable enough to want to try standing again.<p>

She yipped when she put her full weight on the foot the rock had betrayed – blimey, that _hurt_! Fortunately, a few tests revealed it was just a twisted ankle. She could keep going with that, just be a bit more careful watching the ground, s'all. Couldn't afford a sprain out here with no water in sight and no closer to her destination. She could swear it was moving away, taunting her when that was the last thing she needed. .

She picked up her coat and draped it over her head again, and scanned the horizon again to get her bearings, panic rising when she couldn't see her shining goal.. "...no. Oh no, it can't be gone. It can't!"

She turned faster, frantically seeking out any hint of a gleam, and found nothing. The panic had definitely set in, and she started running in what she thought had been the last direction she'd seen her elusive goal, coat flapping in one hand.

About thirty minutes later, running in the heat had finally taken it's full toll. Donna collapsed, barely aware enough to rest her cheek on one arm to keep her nose out of the sand. She couldn't even muster up enough strength to roll over when she heard something approaching, even though it sounded like it might be something big enough to eat her.

Three were voices now, but she just couldn't seem to find the energy to care enough at that moment. Still, there were bits and snatches of two people having a conversation about her that she caught from the wind. Rude blighters...she'd have a word with them...in just a few minutes. The shade of their bodies was really quite nice, and she was _so_ tired...

"...were right, it's human..." the first voice rumbled.

"...found that missing person..." the second voice was slightly higher, and continued after what seemed like a pause. "...on three, and let's get to the skimmer..."

"...the report said male though..." the first voice was dubious, though not seriously protesting the second's suggestions.

"...let the bigwigs sort it out. What they get..." the second voice sounded annoyed now.

Donna wanted to say something about not being missing (except she _was_, and on a quest to save...something besides just herself on top of that), but she couldn't find her mouth through the fog in her mind that seemed to have come along with the sudden shade. It was so much easier to let the cool dark sweep in and take her away from the hands picking her up and carrying her off.

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><p>The Doctor was hip-deep in the flooring under the console, checking circuits and linkages to make sure nothing got shorted out when the TARDIS conspired with the DoctorDonna to make a time tunnel in the console room. He had just slithered in a few inches more to get a better, if very precarious, look at one particular component when the TARDIS door opened.<p>

"Hello the TARDIS! Anyone home?"

The Doctor fell the rest of the way into the under-floor space with a thud and an 'ow'. He really, really didn't want to deal with Jack right now. Not when he was strung out with worry about Donna, and anger at both of his girls for conspiring to make him worry while being useless. He heaved a sigh at the unavoidable encounter and corrected his orientation from head down to head up, then took advantage of being all the way down to check a few more components. "Bit busy at the moment, Jack."

"Oh, there you are." Jack knelt beside the access and grinned down at the Doctor. "Glad to see you taking a bit of downtime, but you really ought to be celebrating saving the universe with Donna." A teasingly salacious grin curled his lips as he continued. "Or let me take her out to celebrate if you're going to be busy with the TARDIS."

"Jaaaack!" The Doctor glowered, but it had no results. "Let me finish up down here." There wasn't anything needing replacing, but a few linkages could use tightening up, and he'd be damned if he let anything stupid like that keep him from saving Donna. Maybe he could get rid of Jack without having to tell him everything that had happened as a result of the metacrisis?

"Don't see what you finishing up down there has to do with me taking Donna out to celebrate." Jack was prodding the Doctor deliberately, since it was a currently Donna-free zone. With the _looks_ the Doctor had given him earlier, he hadn't quite dared to flirt with her as he usually would. But it should be safe enough to tease the Doctor without her around.

The Doctor huffed while he tightened a loose linkage. He obviously wasn't going to get out of this with telling Jack nothing, so if he could just keep it simple, maybe he could get away without complicated delays. "You can't take her out because she isn't here."

"Making sure her family's all right then? Well, no reason for you to mope around fixing things on the old girl just because Donna's not around. Get out of there and come have dinner."

"Yes. Yes that's it exactly. She's with Sylvia and Wilfred, making sure they're all right, having a nice bit of cottage pie." One last look-over revealed nothing else wrong with the old girl, so he made his way back to the access hatch and hauled himself out. Or rather, had Jack's completely unnecessary help in getting out of the space. "And I don't have the time to go celebrating, I need to get back to her. Just had to top the old girl up and make sure she's all right after towing the Earth back."

Jack gave the Doctor a very suspicious look. The Doctor was babbling, and in that particular way he used to try and cover something up. And since Donna was the trigger and, more importantly, wasn't around, it had to have something to do with her. "Doctor, there wouldn't happen to be anything wrong with Donna, would there?"

"Wrong?" He squeaked, then cleared his throat. "Nothing's wrong, Jack. Not a thing, not a teensy-weensy little thing at all's wrong with Donna. Nope, Donna's just fine, absolutely fine, not a thing wrong at all with her."

"Oh fuck." Jack wiped his face with his hand. This...this squeak and babble from the Doctor meant there was something really, really bad either just happened or just about to happen. "It's something with the metacrisis, isn't it? Better tell me what's going on so I can arrange to keep an eye on her if it's needed."

The Doctor muttered something unintelligible under his breath and sat on the jumpseat. Obviously the universe insisted on adding more delays to his finding and saving Donna, so he'd best not add any more of his own and just spit it out. "Donna...isn't with her family. She and the TARDIS conspired to make a time-tunnel to send her somewhere else, and now I have to go find her and make sure the metacrisis isn't going to kill her."

"_What_? Time tunnel? Where? And more importantly, why?"

"Yes, time tunnel. I don't know where, but the TARDIS does, and as soon as she's done topping up from expending so much power to make one, she's going to take me there." Maybe if he ignored the 'why', he could get away without having to explain the rest? Nah, he couldn't be that lucky...it was worth a shot though, right?

"Doctor, why would Donna and the TARDIS conspire to send her away from you? The pair of you are good together...better than you and Martha were. Donna's been really good for you, and I presume you've been good for her. Why would she want to run away from that?"

The Doctor rubbed his face with both hands, finally tired of the futile attempts to evade the guilt. "Because of what I was going to do. The metacrisis is going to kill her, Jack. Time Lord mind, human brain, she'll fry, and I...I can't lose her like that. Not like that." He sighed, then looked bleakly at Jack. "So I was going to wrap it in her memories of me and...make her forget. To buy time until I could figure out how to remove the Time Lord mind from her without ripping her own to shreds. She obviously disagreed with me, and the TARDIS helped her make a time tunnel to take her away. Where she'll die all alone if I can't find her in time."

If the Doctor hadn't been so obviously guilt-wracked and grieving, Jack would have laid into him and attempted to rip him to shreds. But he couldn't, not when the Doctor was actually letting him have a glimpse of how much he was hurting. So silence reigned for a minute or two, while Jack tried to figure out what to say. Finally, Jack sighed too, and looked up at the Doctor. "Rough, and I can see why they did it. Especially with you trying to make decisions for her - _that _obviously went over like a lead balloon. But I'm sure you'll find her in time - the old girl obviously adores Donna, or she wouldn't have conspired against you. I can't see her sending Donna somewhere there wouldn't be any hope. Or help."

The Doctor made a noise that might have been a laugh, or it might have been a sob. "You don't have to go searching for faint hopes for me to cling to, Jack. It won't work - I know too much about what's happening to Donna, and not enough to save her."

"But you're still going to try anyway. I know you, Doctor. You don't give up. And Donna's worth it."

"Yeah." It was a ghastly attempt at a smile, but he made it anyway. "Course I'm going to keep trying. Donna's my best friend."

"Then do yourself a favour, Doctor," Jack said as he got back to his feet. "Don't try to save Donna by making her forget. We're only the sum of our memories, you know...making her forget is almost like killing her. Just no bloodshed."

The Doctor winced, wounded by how right Jack was, then sighed and stood up to walk him out. "I suppose I can kill the rest of the hour before the old girl is ready by building a stasis chamber."

"You do that, Doctor." Jack smirked a bit and paused in the doorway. "And bring Donna back when you've saved her, and we'll celebrate then."

"Jaaack!" He rolled his eyes in exasperated fondness. "You leave Donna alone and _maybe_ we'll come celebrate."

"Yes sir!" Jack laughed and saluted, then left the TARDIS and the Doctor. He wouldn't be welcome in this much more personal world-saving. As he walked away, he murmured, "Good luck, Doctor. You're going to need it."

The Doctor watched his immortal friend walk away and sighed, then closed the TARDIS doors and walked to the console. "What do you think, old girl? Have we got what we need to make a stasis chamber good enough?" The reassuring hum and nudge of mental communication made him smile, faintly, but it was a smile. "Molto bene. I'll do that, you get ready to find where you sent Donna."


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: If I owned the Doctor and Donna, I wouldn't have to write a fix-it for Journey's End. And I would be living in England, too.

Author's Note: This chapter was difficult to start, but once it did...well, there's an unplanned twist alongside the planned twist (who's pretty cute too). Bit of naughty language as well, and I give you official notice that most of this chapter is rated 'C' for 'Creepy', but not yet 'H' for 'Hide behind the sofa'. Sometimes I have to wonder about what lurks in my head...ah well. I don't think I'll make it to Moffat-level scary...no promises though.

Love to my reviewers and readers!

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><p>Chapter 2: T'was a Miner forty-niner<p>

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><p>Donna's return to consciousness was slow, and sense-driven. First it was touch - the most uncomfortable bed she'd been in for a very long time, plus ridiculously heavy sheets. And tape on her arm, and something held on and in her arm by it. IV drip, probably. It was either a prison or a hospital, and as her nose came into the picture, hospital became more likely, though it could be a prison hospital. Astringent scents of disinfectants warred with sweat and other odors coming from her that she really didn't want to think about, and don't even talk about taste. It tasted like a mouse had shat in her horribly dry mouth. As her ears came back on line, she noted the beeping of a monitor, and how one of the beeps changed in tone. Probably telling the world she was awake, annoying little beep.<p>

Finally she slitted her eyes open, then squinched them shut again. Definitely hospital - the white was as blinding as the twin suns on whatever desert planet she'd wound up on.

"Ah, good! Our mystery woman is awake!" An overly-cheery voice belonging to a doctor or a male nurse...whichever it was, he was too bloody cheerful for how she felt.

"...w'ter...' she managed to croak out. Yeah, she was hooked up to an IV, but she was dying of thirst, not to mention she really -had- to get the revolting taste out of her mouth.

"Of course, just a moment," The nurse (no doctor would stoop to getting a patient water) bustled about, then presented a straw to her lips. "Easy does it, you were really dehydrated and you don't want to be sick."

Donna sucked gratefully at the cool water, letting each sip rehydrate the miniature desert her mouth had become. She finished the entire cup that way, then cautiously slitted her eyes open again. "Where am I?"

"Delthran IV. Mining colony, fuel refinery, only refuelling port available for three systems." A door swished open somewhere, admitting more people into the room.

"That's enough, Nurse Rennis. We'll need to question our...guest now."

"Of course, sirs. Just let her get another cup of water down." The nurse held the cup for her again, and Donna sucked the moisture down, one wary eye on the three suited nitwits that had barged in. They had to be upper management, like that Halpern who'd got himself turned into an Ood. Unless all the mining was done by remote and everyone wore suits...nah. That was just silly.

Even before she'd properly finished the water, one of the suits started up. "If you feel capable of talking, we need to know who you are and how you got out in the desert so far from the colony."

She snorted and refrained from rolling her eyes, somehow. "Donna Noble. And I haven't the foggiest how I got here - last I knew before that desert, I was on a ship." Well, TARDIS did count as a ship, even if her outside was incredibly compact. And while she knew the name of how she got here, as long as that Time Lord mind of hers was still mostly asleep (thank God for small favours), she didn't know the how. So, no lying required at all to distract the bigwigs. Now, if only she could figure out where to go from here...although she had a feeling that 'where' was going to be decided without her input.

The second suit frowned at her, then nodded reluctantly. "It does fit, since no one of her description was registered from any of the ships that have been by in the past month. Perhaps someone abducted, and then abandoned Ms. Noble on our planet when it became problematical to keep her."

The third suit spoke up then. "It is far more likely that she arrived here illegally, a member of one of the groups that want us shut down. As there is no honor among thieves, she had an argument with that saboteur we've been hunting, who then knocked her out and left her in the desert to die. As soon as she is mobile, she goes to the mines."

Donna's irate "What?" went ignored by everyone but the nurse, who put a warning hand on her arm. She'd have ignored it if she didn't still feel mostly horrid. Besides, what was she going to do right now anyway, fall on them? Yeah, that'd be real impressive.

"There was a death in Sector 12 again, she would be able to work for her keep from there." That was the first suit again. "Should it prove out that she was abducted and has persons of value looking for her, she can always be made to forget her time there."

Rennis squeezed Donna's arm again, probably because he felt her tense up to start shouting at the bosses. Thankfully, she seemed to be sensible enough to just listen for now. And since he was the only one about for the next hour after the Stamfords left, he'd get to explain a little to her before he had to consign her to the mines. Then maybe someone could put a stop to them.

"Since we do need a full crew in Sector 12, I concur."

So much for the middle suit proving to be anything other than another bean-counter at heart. He must have been elected Devil's Advocate today. Donna rolled her eyes and waited for them to leave now that they'd assigned her fate. Not that it actually was a fate until she was well enough to walk, but still!

The _second_ the door closed behind them though, Donna rounded on the nurse as best she could, and hissed. "I thought you said this was a colony, with like, laws and stuff! They've just consigned me to hard labour in a mine for being lost in a desert!"

"I didn't get the chance to tell you it was a private colony. And the only law just walked out of here." Rennis eyed her like she'd had some slight impairment of her intelligence, then continued talking. "There are groups against the Stamfords - the three brothers who just left - for a number of reasons," Rennis glanced around the room in a minor paranoid fit to confirm what he already knew, then continued in a voice so low Donna could barely hear him. "One of which is they buy the contracts of people wanting to escape the slums of inner-sector planets and...work them to death. Oh, it's always listed as accidental, but still. It's not right, and it's not right what they do to the protesters they can catch, either. Sector 12 is weirdly lethal, but it's the richest vein of Thyrillium ore in the area so they're always sending people there."

"That's where they're sending me!" Donna glared at Rennis, and took the third cup of water on her own, thankyouverymuch. When she'd downed half of it, she softened her glare to a frown and asked, "I don't suppose you're telling me all this because you've got a secret plan to bust me out?"

"I was actually hoping I could somehow arrange for you to get in touch with your group, and tell them what's happening." He gave her a pleading look. "Please say they were right and you're part of a group."

Donna sighed and finished her water. "I wish I could. I really wish I could, cos then I hopefully wouldn't be going to the death-trap. But someone will be looking for me, sooner or later, so tell me everything you can in case he finds me before he finds you. _And so I know what I'm in for_, she grumpily thought. "Otherwise, just keep your eyes open for a skinny bloke with fantastic hair, calls himself The Doctor, and help him when he shows up. He can put a stop to this, no problem."

"Oh wonderful. I broke silence for someone who can't help!" Rennis babbled on a bit more in that same panicked vein - he didn't know if the infirmary was bugged or not, or whether they'd care about what he knew, and if it was and they did, he'd just given himself up for the sake of a lone woman who couldn't do anything!

"Oi! A little less panic, a lot more information!" Donna hissed at the panicking nurse, trying to get through to him. When it seemed like he'd got over his hysterics and calmed down a bit, she continued. "Now listen, I know everything seems to you like it's gone to pot, but I've been in worse scrapes, and here I am alive and well, right? Right. So, information, and maybe I can at least do something about the deaths while I'm there."

"Fine, fine. I just hope your confidence in yourself isn't misplaced." Rennis replaced the empty bag on her IV with fresh saline, then continued in that soft murmur now that he was a little calmer. "Well, the deaths...they're not the usual deaths one would expect in a mine. Those are being crushed under partial mine collapses, fatal injuries from faulty equipment, poisoned by gas pocket...worked to death on inadequate food...you know, the usual for a mining complex run by heartless bastards. Sector 12 though...the deaths are usually individual. And the autopsy reports all record the same brain damage. Like someone had stirred their brains up with a stick." He sounded like he was quoting that last line. "And there's no gas pocket that will only hit one miner, plus gas can't do that anyway, and none of the equipment is capable of doing that."

She could feel the Time Lord mind stirring fitfully - apparently something about people dying by mysterious intangible swizzle sticks stirring their brains to mush woke it up a bit more. Not enough to get her tripping over her words again, not for several hours yet. And certainly not enough to get her talking like the Doctor again...but that'd come soon. Another few hours, she thought. And then, if it went like last time, six hours of being DoctorDonna and maybe solving this mess before she started to collapse again. Hopefully she'd be able to recognize the chance she'd been half-promised to save herself as well as solve this mystery when she found it.

"Doesn't sound good. It also doesn't sound like anything I've ever heard of before, but that's story of my life lately, innit?" She waved her hand at his look of confusion. "Never mind, just thinking out loud. So, how much longer till I get sent to the lethal mystery?"

Rennis checked her vitals again, then shrugged. "An hour tops. You're recovering remarkably well from heat stroke and dehydration."

"Yeah, clean living works wonders." She took advantage of having a little time to see if Rennis could bring her some soup or something, since she was starting to get hungry. While he was gone, Donna sighed and rubbed her temples, and let her brave facade drop for a moment for a good whinge. "God, what the hell did I stumble into? And why would the TARDIS send me here? What can I do to fix this? I'm just a temp with a Time Lord mind!"

She put the brave faceback on for that nice if nervous nurse Rennis when he came back with soup and fruit, and spent the rest of her recovery learning everything she could about her immediate future. Including that, if she survived that long, she'd see him once a day as he was the lucky nurse elected to do Sector 12's general health care. Useful, maybe. Reassuring, definitely - a friendly face always made one feel better. And barring the Doctor showing up and _not_ trying to steal her memories, Rennis would do nicely to keep her hopes up. Well, for a while...

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><p>Rennis had exaggerated a little - it was an hour and a half before two goons showed up to drag her off to the mystery mine that would've had the Doctor bouncing in anticipation. Daft git. Still, she couldn't deny that she was more than a bit curious, as well as furious with these Stamfords. And outright peeved at the goons, who manhandled her into an eight-wheeled buggy and drove her off deeper into the complex.<p>

"Oi! I'm not going anywhere, so keep your hands to yourself!" Donna swatted at a too-familiar hand, then glowered at both guards. "And don't even think about any other funny business either - I bite!"

"Funny woman. You're bound for the dark and dismal death-trap, you'd think you'd be grateful for one last go in the sunlight." The handsy guard leered at her, only to be verbally smacked down by his partner behind the controls.

"Enough Vellick. You know all injuries get reported, and you'll get docked if you show up with another bite. Or any scratches or bruises."

"Crendal, are you sure you're a man? But fine, fine, no more touching up the lovely lady." Vellick leered at Donna again. "Unless you've changed your mind?"

"Not bleedin' likely! You just keep your hands over there, and you won't have a great bloody hole to explain!"

The rest of the trip passed in sulky silence, a relief to Donna as she'd been afraid that her bluster wouldn't be able to keep the goon from more than touching. And for all that it was a death-trap waiting to swallow her up, she was looking forward to getting there just to get away before Vennis decided to change his mind again. She also bet she was the only one who noticed the glint of something shiny up on the cliff where there wasn't any installation, but that wouldn't help her much right now. Just something to note for later, if she could get out of the death-trap.

When they pulled up at the adit, Donna pulled her coat around herself and got out of the buggy before Vellick could touch her again. She'd wondered a bit why they let her keep her clothes instead of giving her a uniform or standard prison garb, but figured it was to cut costs. Bloody creeps - she was almost looking forward to being the DoctorDonna again, just to shut this place down. It was nice she got to keep her coat though. It'd help when she got down in the mine where it'd be cold.

* * *

><p>High atop the cliff, a man put away his binoculars that had gotten Donna's attention, then talked to the com-unit on his wrist. "Another person made prisoner and taken to Sector 12. Too many people die oddly in there, and I'm almost tempted to allow them to capture me to find out why. Returning to base, more detailed report then." He cleared the area of any sign of his presence, then departed like a wisp of wind.<p>

* * *

><p>Inside the mine, she was led around by a different pair of goons, deeper into tunnels than she'd ever been before, not that she and the Doctor had done much mine investigating. And pretty far down too - she was sure her ears had popped to equalize the pressure. Finally the long walk came to an end when one of the goons stopped at a barred cavern and opened the door. The other one pushed her in, then announced. "Here's your newest, be nice to her," then the door clanged shut and for a long minute the only sound was the shuffling of prisoners and the footsteps of the retreating guards.<p>

"...makes me wish I'd nicked the Doctor's sonic when I had the chance," she muttered, then approached the nearest group of prisoners. "Hello, I'm Donna-"

From further back in the cavern, an excited voice chirped "Donna? Donna, is it really you?" A small, dirty blonde girl wove carefully through a group of resting prisoners to get closer to Donna, then she grinned and ran the rest of the way to latch on to her with a hug. "It is! It really is you! Oh, I'm so happy to see you! Is Dad somewhere around too?"

Donna was speechless at the babble, so like her dad...but it wasn't possible. The blonde hugging her like her life depended on it had died...hadn't she? Finally she found her voice, and gently tilted the girl's head back to get a good look at her. "Jenny? But I thought...we thought...you were dead...how?"

"Haven't a clue, but oh it's good to see you! This place is dreadful, and there's something weird about it too. Where's Dad? I need to tell him about it and get him to fix this place." Jenny tugged Donna by the hand through the other people to the nice little niche she'd claimed, with some tired looking people laying near it. "Here, sit down and tell me everything."

"It...it's good to see you too, Jenny. But I dunno where your Dad is - bit of a long story, that. Still, tell me about the weird, and maybe we can work together to figure more of it out."

"Well, other than the prisoners - or as the creeps here say, miners - no one stays down in the mine after it's night outside. That's weird right from the start - you'd think there'd be a night shift for the guards to prevent a break-out. And...well, when people die, it's always at night, and they're alone. That's why everyone is all bunched up together - so far no one's died yet if they were in a group." Jenny glanced over at the small group that she apparently stayed with, and continued in a lower voice. "I usually don't talk about it, because it upsets people, but at night, every night, I hear whispers. But they're never understandable." Jenny wrapped her arms around herself and looked down. "And they always get louder, almost a shriek, whenever someone dies. But no one else hears them, even when they're shrieking."

"Oh Jenny," Donna pulled her into a hug the moment she realised that for all her projected bounce and braveura, Jenny was a scared little girl right now, who probably wanted Daddy to come and scare the monsters away. Pity she was stuck with just Donna, but they'd manage, somehow. "I know that has to be so scary. But you aren't alone anymore, and everything's better with company, right?" Quick little distraction, that, but other than hugging her and stroking her hair, it was all Donna could do. She couldnt' tell Jenny it'd be all right - flippin heck, she didn't even know if she'd survive the entire next day! But she could do the next best thing. "You have more information than my source did though. He didn't even know they didn't keep guards here at night. Er...it's pretty gross, what my source told me, so I'll understand if you don't want to hear the cause of death."

Jenny relished the hug, and the only thing keeping her from being perfectly content was the lack of Dad in it. For a minute or two, she could pretend that nothing was wrong and that everything would be all right. It couldn't last, and she knew it, but it felt good anyway. "It's scary too, isn't it? But I should probably hear it, because it's something I don't know. All we ever know is that someone else died."

"Well, my source got the autopsy reports. And Jenny...whatever it is that's killing these people has the capacity to stir brains to mush without leaving any mark to show how." Donna wished she hadn't had to tell Jenny that, but better to get it out now than wait for later.

"Oh ew," Jenny shuddered and curled closer to Donna for a moment, then frowned as she tried to figure it out. "That's...weird. And creepy. There isn't anything down here that could do that."

"I know, sweetheart. And I wished I had someone to hug when I heard about it, believe me." She sighed and squeezed the young girl, then gave her a small smile. "The Doctor will be along soonish though. Course he's going to be more worried about my head than what's going on, but we can get him to figure this out too."

"Why's Dad going to be worried about your head, Donna? It looks fine to me - did you get a concussion or something?"

"Nah. What happened...well, telling most of it would take too long, so I'll give you the short form. There was a Time Lord and Human metacrisis, and I've got a copy of your Dad's mind in my head. It's quiet right now, cos of how I got here, but it'll wake up soon. And then I'll be a super-genius for several hours." Donna heaved a sigh and gave Jenny a wan, quivery smile. "And then, if I haven't figured out how to fix it by then, or your Dad hasn't either...well, then I'll die. Burn up, cos a human brain just can't handle a Time Lord mind."

"Oh," Jenny looked scared, and very small for a minute, then she burrowed into Donna's side with a sob. "You can't die though, not when we've just found each other! You'll fix it, or Dad will, I know it! Isn't fair...I just found you, and...and..." she trailed off into quiet crying, clinging to Donna like she was the only stable thing in the universe.

"That's what I'm hoping for. I just haven't figured out how to do it yet." Donna stroked Jenny's hair soothingly while the poor girl cried, then kissed her on the top of her head. "Now c'mon, let's snatch a bit of a lie-down...I have the feeling that tonight's gonna be real busy."

"I hope not. I'm so tired of being creeped out by the whispers." Jenny plucked two blankets from the niche, then lead Donna closer to the small group of mostly sleeping people. "We'll be safe here."

"Yeah, probably." Donna helped Jenny make the spot as comfortable as rough-hewn rock could get with two blankets and a coat, then bit her lip in thought. "Jenny? What happens if there are only two people? Is that as bad as sleeping alone? And does anyone die if they're awake and alone, or is it just when they're sleeping?"

"I don't know. No one sleeps in a group of less than five, not for as long as I've been here. And," she paused and looked down, ashamed. "I may be awake during the whispering, but I've been too afraid to leave the safety of numbers to go looking. But people who go alone to, um, relieve themselves...they die too if they go while the whispers are active." When Donna didn't scold her for being afraid, Jenny peered up at her through the gloom of the lights switching to night shift. "You're thinking again, aren't you? You and Dad, always thinking...I'm sorry. I've been too scared to think."

"Course I'm thinking. Right now I'm thinking I'm glad we don't have to test out what happens when there's only two sleeping together. And there is nothing wrong with being scared, sweetheart. I'm afraid too, and I've only been here a short little while." Donna copied Jenny's attempts at getting comfy, then wrapped her arms around the young girl, frowning at the tenseness of the former soldier. "At least try and rest, sweetheart. Even Time Lords need downtime."

"I'll try. But it's hard, Donna. So hard, and I've been so afraid," Jenny rolled over and burrowed into Donna again, sobbing as silently as she could to hide the shame of breaking down twice - twice! - in less than an hour.

"I know, lovey, I know. I'm here now though, and you're not alone anymore." Donna mostly concentrated on soothing Jenny, while around them the rest of the prisoners drifted off to sleep. But if she didn't drift off too, which wasn't likely with her Time Lord mind doing the equivalent of stretching and wishing for a cuppa, she was damned well going to be awake when the whispering started again. And then she would have _words_ with them, whatever they were, for killing people and scaring Jenny.


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Still don't own 'em. But I have the sneaking suspicion that they're having more fun with me, despite that. ;)

Author's Note: Still rated 'C' for 'Creepy', and starts to get Complicated as well as a potential 'S' for 'Hide behind the Sofa'. Now with extra Jack, because the TARDIS said so. And the foldbox referenced within was originally created by Robert Heinlein in the novel 'Glory Road'.

Love to all my reviewers and readers!

* * *

><p>Chapter 3: The Night has a Thousand Eyes<p>

* * *

><p>The Doctor had just barely re-entered the console room from the medbay, when Jack walked back in. "Jaaack, I'm about to leave. Could we save it, whatever it is, for later?"<p>

"I know you're about to leave. But my team and I agreed that you might be headed into trouble, and you could use someone to pull you out of it while Donna's unavailable." Jack smirked at the Doctor and shook his head. "And I think the TARDIS wanted me to stick around too, why else would gorgeous be nagging at me?"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at Jack, then glanced at the ceiling. A quick mental debate ensued, then he shook his head and started setting coordinates according to the TARDIS' insistence. "All right, the old girl wants you along. If your team can do without you...I suppose I can put up with you getting underfoot." The Doctor quirked a grin that almost made it to his eyes, then gestured to the console. "If she wants you around, you may as well make yourself useful. Aaand, off we go to...wonder what's on Delthran IV that the old girl would send Donna there for?"

"What's Delthran IV? And why would the TARDIS send Donna there?" Jack asked, savouring once more traveling in the TARDIS. Even if it was because the Doctor had been an idiot.

"Hm? Oh, desert planet, two suns, only planet in the system that didn't need extensive protection just to live on. It was still deemed a rather useless planet - not much call for living in deserts for the average person - until they discovered Thyrillium ore deposits. Private mining consortium owns rights when we're going...it'll be taken over by the Fourth Federation in a few months though." The Doctor allowed himself to be minorly distracted by the time of their destination. Eight months before, in that time by the New Byzantine calendar, he'd lost Jenny. The last chance he'd had to have a family, and he'd never appreciated her until it was too late.

Well, no sense in brooding again...he still had Donna. If he could get to her in time. "Still, something about Thyrillium ore though...something about it's nagging at me..."

The TARDIS lurched brutally, then slewed hard to the left, interrupting the Doctor with the minor crisis. "Oh, I remember now," he shouted as he applied the mallet, then fought past sparks with Jack to do what they could to ease the landing. "Thyrillium ore has an odd harmonic that interferes with materializing, among other things! Can't get closer than a half a mile to any deposit worth mining."

"And why couldn't you remember sooner?" Jack shouted back, dealing with the rough landing by holding on tight to the rim of the console. "Could have avoided shaking the TARDIS up like this!"

"Wasn't me, Jack. She chose the coordinates herself, all I did was input them and put us in flight." Once they'd landed, the Doctor put out the minor fire, then checked the console for damage. Finding pretty much nothing but cosmetic repairs needed, which the TARDIS would probably have fixed herself by the time they got back, he threw on his coat and headed for the door, after giving the TARDIS a comforting pat. "Come on, let's see where we're at."

Jack straightened his coat and followed, squinting as the TARDIS door opened directly onto a magnificent double-sunset. "Well, we've got a real long walk if we want to check civilization first." He shut the door behind him, then shielded his eyes and peered harder. "Looks like a heat-exchanger tower, doesn't it? Part of a cooling system."

"Yup," the Doctor said, not even bothering to shade his eyes. "Tall one too, from the looks of it - I think it's in a valley, and we're on what will be a cliff face with mining adits if we go that way."

"What, we aren't? Wouldn't it make sense to look for Donna in the colony?" Jack turned his back to the sun and scanned the desert the other way, using the wrist-comp part of his vortex manipulator. And said something mostly anatomically impossible when he discovered another property of Thyrillium ore - it meddled with sensors something horrible.

"Maaaaybe. It depends on where exactly Donna is, and I can't quite sense her clearly enough for a solid line to her. Which is good, means the Time Lord mind is quiescent, but we're going to be a while finding her."

"Well, can't you get any idea of direction? We could be working on getting closer so when everything starts happening..."

"Course I can, in a reallyreally general sense. Thataway." He waved away from the heat-exchanger tower, off to the right of where they were standing. "We just have to get a few things from the TARDIS first."

* * *

><p>The two men stepped back out of the TARDIS fifteen minutes later, both men still apparently carrying nothing, though from the sound of the conversation, the tale was much different.<p>

"I still don't believe you fit that stasis pod in that box. And then supplies for being stuck out in the desert." Jack huffed as he hiked. "And then, the box folded up and you stuffed it in a pocket!.

"Foldbox, Jack. It's a bit along the same dimensionally transcendental lines as the TARDIS, but in a much easier to carry format. It does have it's drawbacks, such as an actual weight limit, and it gets heavier the smaller you fold it..." The Doctor smirked, then paused with his head in a listening pose. "Donna's location hasn't changed that I can tell right now - come on, Jack. Allons-y!" Off they went at a brisk pace, the fading light of the setting suns lighting their way for a little while longer.

"Don't suppose you remember any predators to watch out for, Doctor? I mean, I'm sure the Thyrillium ore had most of your attention, but anything else you remember about Delthran IV would be helpful. Especially since I can't use my wrist-comp for anything more than decoration." Jack pulled out a torch and flicked it on as the slightly slower sun slipped below the horizon, leaving them in darkness.

"Not really. Sorry, but I never did claim to know everything." The Doctor wasn't using his torch, instead apparently navigating by the feel of the soil. "Hope we don't have to find out though."

"Wonder what Donna would say at the chances of being eaten by a giant lizard?" Jack snorted and puffed a bit as he climbed a small rise.

"Nag at me and draw the attention of every hypothetical giant lizard around for the next half-hour. Desert planet, Jack. As long as we stay non-prey-like, they'll be asleep in half an hour because the temperature's gonna plummet. Well, unless they're starving and they're warm-blooded like the dinosaurs."

"Sometimes I forget just how reassuring you can be, Doctor," Jack muttered sarcastically.

"Would be a bit awkward, eaten by a giant lizard while we were trying to save Donna." The Doctor hid his smirk in the dark and finally flicked on his own torch. "Relax, Jack, I'm pretty sure there isn't anything big enough to hurt us out there in the dark."

"You so sure of that?" A strange voice echoed from the dark surrounding them.

"Weell, I _was_," the Doctor replied. "Did we break a law? Are we getting arrested?"

There was a snort from the darkness, then a man stepped into the light. He was as tall as the Doctor and Jack, broad-shouldered, a face-shaped face and sand-coloured hair. "Arrested...any other planet, I could have you two arrested for anything, so long as I had plausible cause. This one? We'll be lucky to make it through the night if we don't make it to shelter."

"Great," Jack rolled his eyes and assessed the man. "What's a Federation Patrolman got to worry about giant lizards for?"

The patrolman let out a dry laugh. "Giant lizards? That'd be a doddle, wouldn't it? No, it's something to do with the mines. And," he cut Jack off before he could ask another question. "I'm only telling you two this because I've been following and listening to you since a bit before sunset. You're clearly not working for the Stamfords. Especially not if you're worried about someone's well-being. And I'm Patrolman Fielding, by the by."

"Right, right, I'm the Doctor. Speaking of worried about someone, Patrolman Fielding - and we're going to talk about these Stamfords later, mind - I don't suppose you've seen a stroppy ginger, stands about so tall? Very shouty?" The Doctor asked, hands in his pockets after gesturing to show Donna's height.

"Ginger, yes, not sure about the height or the shouting, but she's definitely stroppy. She's in the Sector 12 mine complex by now." The sandy-haired bloke ran his hand through his hair and nervously eyed the dark. "Now, do you think we could stop hanging about flapping our lips and get to shelter? There's something out here that kills people, given the chance."

Jack shot the Doctor a look, in case he was thinking about arguing, then smiled at the patrolman. "Captain Jack Harkness. We'd be pleased to, Fielding. How far is your shelter?" His heart really wasn't into flirting at the moment, but he did a little, out of habit. Maybe he'd flirt properly later, when they were safe from whatever it was lurking in the dark.

"Not far - five minutes over there, between the arching rocks. Well, you could see them if it was daylight." Fielding replied, then frowned at the Doctor, who wasn't paying either of them a bit of attention, but was just staring off into the darkness. "Come on, you can ask whatever you like when we're indoors."

"What?" The Doctor looked at Jack and Fielding almost as if he was surprised to see them. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention - listening to something."

"Doctor - is it Donna? Do we need to ignore our safety and speed it up?" Jack gave the Doctor a concerned look - he wasn't used to seeing him so distracted. Like something was talking to him...

"No, it's not Donna. At least I don't think it is, doesn't feel like her." The Doctor frowned, and waved in the air, towards Sector 12, if he'd known what he was waving at. "Can't you hear it? The whispering?" The Doctor took a few steps away from them, in the direction he'd waved in. "I can't quite tell what they're saying, but there's more than one..." Before he could wander any further, Jack grabbed him by the arm.

"Doctor, we've got something that kills people out here, we can't let you go off chasing random whispers. If it's not just the wind," The rising breeze Jack was referring to ruffled their hair with a rough caress. "Now come on - we've got to get to safety, then you can tell us about stuff we can't hear."

"Whispers? That's not good." Fielding shot Jack a worried look, then shook his head and lead the way toward his shelter. "Come on - you can handle your friend if he gets difficult, right?"

"Yeah, if I have to I'll just pick him up and carry him," Jack smirked at Fielding, then lowered his voice to talk to the Doctor. "I really don't want to have to pick you up and carry you, Doctor. Are you coming with us?"

The Doctor finally focused fully on Jack, and gave him a wan smile. "Yeah. Course I am. Sorry, you know how I get about a mystery." To prove it, he started following Fielding, until Jack's hold on his arm stopped him. "Come on, we've got two mysteries calling us, and the clues to one are leaving!"

Jack laughed softly as they followed Fielding, the relief audible as well as the humor. "Glad to see you being yourself again, Doc."

"Jaaack, don't call me 'Doc'."

"Make me stop. Doc."

* * *

><p>Down in the mines, Donna stiffened as she heard the whispers start. Her twitching meant that Jenny woke from her doze, which Donna really regretted - poor kid hadn't had a decent sleep in ages, and now she'd gone and woken her up just in time for the nightly horror show. "That's them, isn't it?" she hissed, scowling at the dimly lit dark.<p>

"Yeah," Jenny breathed, and pulled herself even closer to Donna.

"All right, sorry I woke you. Just relax as best you can and let me have a listen-in. Starting to be the DoctorDonna now, after all, maybe I can tell something..." She trailed off and cuddled Jenny protectively, then strained her mind and ears to listen.

"Relax. That's a good one." Jenny snorted, but held herself less tensely and quieted down. She'd ask after the whispers left whether being the DoctorDonna would let Donna figure out how to save herself. Jenny didn't think she'd survive if she lost Donna while they were trapped down here - she'd give up, probably.

Donna kissed the top of Jenny's head, then resumed listening with what felt like every fiber of her being. She almost felt that whatever was whispering was deliberately doing it so that anyone capable of hearing it wouldn't understand...yet at the same time, she thought if she listened long enough, it would all start making sense.

For three hours she thought that, and then the voices rose to the shriek Jenny had talked about, and Donna whimpered in a sudden surge of bone-chilling fear. Because finally, now being fully the DoctorDonna, she could understand that shriek, if not all the whispering beforehand. And it meant nothing good at all, because the shriek was one short little word, repeated over and over.

Die!

* * *

><p>In the shelter, the Doctor and Jack met Fielding's two other patrolmen. Well, one was a patrolwoman, Janet Gibbs, but as far as numbers went, Giles Fielding, Steven Marks and Janet Gibbs were it. The Doctor and Jack shared a look, then Jack asked. "I kind of thought there'd be more of you. Did something happen?"<p>

"Something happen?" Janet Gibbs parroted. "You could say that!" She ignored Marks hissing at her to quiet down, and continued with just the faintest touch of hysteria in her voice. "This was supposed to be a simple, if long-term assignment. Find out what all the groups protesting the Stamford facility knew and report back if there were any crimes being committed that didn't fall under the shield of this being a registered corporation colony. So we got here, yeah, got set up just as undercover protocol demands, and then everything starts going wrong. Oh, we found that the Stamfords are breaking laws all right - but we can't do anything about it because our transmitter can't break through the interference something around here produces! And there's something out there in the dark - it's how we lost Daniels, Bradson and Shalandra!" Janet curled into a ball with her hands pressed to her ears. "And the whispering - it won't stop! All night long, whispering and screaming!"

Marks and Fielding seemed like they were expecting Janet to do something like that - Fielding picked her up firmly, but oh-so-gently, and held her in his lap, while Marks already had a hypospray ready to use.

"Oi! What are you doing that for?" the Doctor yelled, barely restrained by Jack.

"If we don't sedate her now," Marks growled, "she'll be chasing whispers all night till something kills her." Fielding, meanwhile, continued to hold Gibbs until Marks got into position and shot her up with a strong sedative. Marks stepped back, and Fielding rose, still holding Gibbs, and carried her to a cot where he tucked her in as though she was the child she looked in his large arms.

Marks ducked into the shelter's tiny kitchen nook, while Fielding resumed his seat and stared at the Doctor and Jack. One of whom was completely calm, the other might as well have a sign saying 'not paying attention to you'.

"So," Jack drawled. "What laws are these Stamfords breaking? And who are they, and what is Sector 12? I'd ask about the whispering, but since the Doctor and your Gibbs are apparently the only ones who can hear it, I'll pass on that question." Even while he was questioning Fielding and Marks, he was keeping an eye on the Doctor. Just in case he went a bit potty like Gibbs.

"Which laws?" Marks growled as he came back with several cups of soup and some ration bars. "The ones regarding the humane treatment of indentured workers? The laws about hijacking? They're breaking at least ten from what we've learnt so far, which others do you want to hear?"

_...you can hear us...come to us..._

"Marks, calm down, they can't help being new here." Fielding snapped and took a soup cup. "The Stamford brothers are the CEO's of Stamford Mining, the company that bought rights to Delthran IV and the Thyrillium ore deposits. They're the usual sort of high-class scum - do anything that turns a profit and balances just on the right side of legal. But then there started to be protest groups a few months after they started hiring indentured labour from the inner systems. Enough that it drew the attention of Sector Command. And then," he sighed and drank from his cup. "Then ships started going missing in this system. Tiny traders, minor freight-haulers...you name it, it was disappearing after stopping here for fueling, so long as there were only two crew max. What got us here was a combination of one clever protest group who'd gotten what they claimed as the undoctored death toll among the indentured, and the disappearance of an independent ship owner who'd contracted for courier duty."

_...come to us and be free of your confinement..._

Marks took over while Fielding sucked down his soup. "Death toll would have been enough, but the missing courier never made it off-planet. And so here we are, talking to two strangers who could be Stamford agents for all we know."

_...be free of the bonds of that unpleasant flesh..._

"Steven, enough. I trust them - besides, they're looking for one of the latest prisoners." Fielding gave Jack a wry look, then glanced at the Doctor, who was sitting on the edge of his stool, in a pose that expressed intense concentration. Or listening to the damned whispers. "So, who's the stroppy redhead, and how did the lot of you get here? Another protest group?

_...join with us, free of the confining flesh..._

"Nah, not really, although now that we're here, we're likely to protest in a unique fashion." Jack flashed a sidelong grin at the two patrolmen, while still watching the Doctor like a hawk. "We were in an entirely different system when Donna - the stroppy ginger - vanished, and we traced her here, and that's pretty much it so far. We just have to figure out a way to break into Sector 12 now, since you said that's where she's at." He kept his eyes on the Doctor, not liking that he couldn't lip-read the silent mumbles, and asked. "Now that I've explained why we're here, how about you continue? I would like to know about your murdered men if you feel like talking about them, but I will bet you anything you like that you found all the missing ships, and whatever the interference is, is all that's keeping you from calling in the troops."

_...everything ends...everything dies..._

"Not much to say, really. They were on night watch and died during the night without a mark. Except for Shalandra who was Kaltorien - if you're not familiar with the species, they're all telepaths - and she ran off chasing the whispers. She was out of sight before we could blink, and half an hour later, her biorecorder gave off the weirdest readings just before it flatlined." Fielding sighed in regret and old pain, then let business bring him back. "Right in one bet, Captain. Retired Patrol or planetary law enforcement, are you?" Fielding smirked at Jack and gestured at the still-distracted Doctor. "Hired on to keep that nutter genius safe?"

_...everything dies..._

"You could say that," Jack agreed, once again frowning worriedly at the Doctor. Who suddenly fell off the stool and curled into a ball with his hands over his ears, letting out a high-pitched keening near-scream the entire time.

_diediediediediediediedie!_

"Get another dose of sedative, Marks!" Fielding snapped, while Jack knelt beside the Doctor.

"No! No sedative - he has odd reactions to most of the common ones! Just let me try and calm him down." He glared at Marks until he was sure the man wasn't going to fetch more sedative, then pulled the Doctor into his lap and wrapped him in his arms, his soft murmurs an odd counterpoint to the constant keening. Until finally it stopped.

"Jack? Are...are..you...is this...real?" the Doctor whispered as he gradually uncurled a few minutes later, staring dazedly up at his friend.

"Yup, I'm real, this floor is real, my numb arse is real... Glad to have you back with us, Doc." Jack grinned and loosened his hold enough to let the Doctor wiggle a bit.

"Jaaaaack, don't call me Doc," he murmured, but didn't try to struggle out of Jack's hold on him. For all his wrongness, Jack felt awfully good right now, and he was unexpectedly tired.

"Whatever you say. Feel up to telling us what the hell that was all about now?" Jack shifted around to sit more comfortably on the floor of the shelter, then attempted to settle the Doctor beside him so he could ease his numb bottom.

"No! No, no, Jack please, don't let me go! They're still out there, don't let me go!" The Doctor frantically fought the attempts to evict him from warm safety, clinging to Jack like a strip of Velcro. He couldn't be left alone and cold, not now, he just couldn't! Not with the whispers ready to kill him!

"It's all right, Doctor, I've got you, you're safe, I'm not going to let you go. Especially not to chase whispers." Jack continued in that vein until the Doctor relaxed again and sighed into his coat.

"Sorry, sorry, don't mean to be such a bother."

"Ah, don't worry about it. You're my bother." Jack smirked, then shifted the Doctor's bony rear off his leg before -it- went numb. "Are we gonna be like this all night? Because I've got a bet going with Ianto, see, and I kind of need to know now so I can call and brag. Or sulk, as the case may be."

"You are incorrigible, Jack." The Doctor managed a weak smile, but he still didn't move away from Jack. "I...I suppose I should tell you what that was all about now. First, I have to ask - did you understand what I was trying to translate?"

"No," Jack said, followed by negatives from Fielding and Marks. "I couldn't read your lips well enough, and there wasn't any sound."

"Oh. Sorry about that - I was trying to translate the whispers. They use about five or six different languages." He leaned into Jack again and sighed. "Everything they do, everything they say, is designed to either lure away those that can hear them, or subconsciously isolate those who can't. And once their victim is alone," He flinched at the memory of what he'd felt, but didn't let himself burrow back into safety. Time enough when they started again to try and hide from voices he couldn't shut out. "They kill whoever the poor person is. I think it was someone in the mines, this time. And it isn't a nice instant death, either. They draw it out..."

"Oh fuck." That was pretty much simultaneous from all three men.

* * *

><p>Down in the mine, Donna was torn between attempting to find out who'd been killed and trying to find a hole that could hide both her and Jenny, then pull it in after them. She also wanted to call the Doctor, but at the same time, she didn't want him around. He'd probably show up alone at night and get his silly Martian self killed from not paying attention.<p>

Jenny sighed and distracted her then, and Donna gave her a wan smile. "I am in awe of your bravery, Jenny. Having to listen to that night after night, and you still held out for so long...look at me, I'm terrified now after just one round!"

"Not really. You're still talking - I was petrified my first night." Jenny tried a wan smile of her own, then laid her head back down. "Should be quiet for a few hours before they start again."

"Good, that'll give us time to think and plan. I may be terrified, but I can't just lay here and let them keep killing people."

"So the whispers are the ones doing the murdering? How? They're just whispers!" Jenny raised her head again and stared at Donna in disbelief.

"Just whispers, no. They're something telepathic, which is why you hear them, and right now I do, and no one else does. And it's how they kill, too. That shriek at the end? When people die? That's the whispers, practically ordering their victim to die. Not sure how their brains get turned into mush though - psionic overload maybe? Bit of telekinesis in there too?"

"That's the DoctorDonna thinking, isn't it? But, um, Donna?"

"Yeah, it is." Donna looked curiously at Jenny. "What, sweetheart?"

"Could you tell the supergenius part of you to work on a way of saving you instead of figuring out whispers we can't do anything about?" Her next words were muffled by her latching onto Donna again and trying not to cry yet again. "I don't know if I could handle it, if you died."

"I'll multitask it. Cos those whispers have to be stopped...I can't just let them keep on killing people to save my own life." Donna's head tilted up, and she nearly sat up in surprise. "Oh that's weird. That is SO weird!"

"What? It can't be the whispers, they don't come back for hours after they've killed. What is it?" Jenny was sitting up now, looking around and futilely trying to see what Donna was listening to.

"Calm down, Jenny. And I'm sorry for scaring you - it's just your dad. I can feel him in my head, and it's brilliant!" Donna smiled brightly and hugged Jenny. "Everything will be all right...so long as he doesn't do something stupid. I wonder..." Donna trailed off and frowned deeply.

Jenny waited patiently for Donna to stop thinking. In the meantime, her mind ran over all the possible ways meeting her dad could go. Hopefully it would be the best way, and he'd want her with him and Donna.

* * *

><p>The shelter was silent for a few minutes while everyone absorbed the Doctor's announcement. Until the Doctor started babbling, which relieved Jack, because this was more normal for the Doctor, not the clingy bugger he still was. "But I still don't understand what they are, or how they kill, precisely. Something about the number of people keeps them from killing any one member of a group...which is why they have to lure their victims away...oh damn it, I need a bigger head! This one's too thick and full of stuff! Think Doctor, think!"<p>

Marks and Fielding traded looks that clearly stated they thought the Doctor was a bit mad, and Jack just rolled his eyes. "Maybe if we can brainstorm about what they could be, you can figure out what they are from that?"

"Might do, might do. Trouble is, we don't know enough. All we know is they're in the mine, or at least around the one particular mine, they whisper, and they shriek when they kill by...well, I don't know how."

"If you can interpret biorecordings, Doctor, we do have the readings from Shalandra, Daniels and Bradson." Fielding commented, and raised an eyebrow at Marks, who reluctantly went to a different corner of the shelter to get a data pad and hand it over to the Doctor.

"Ta much, Marks," the Doctor chirped, but he still didn't move from Jack's lap. "Maybe if I can figure out the how, then I can figure out the what. Or at least a better way of defending from them than staying in a group." And he could feel Donna, or rather the DoctorDonna now, strong as if she was less than a mile away, which was another distraction, because he was torn between dropping everything to save her, and figuring out the whispers, which might also be saving her, but with a delay that could be deadly.

He fished out his spectacles and started reading the reports, and winced when he finished. "Well, that wasn't a pleasant way to die. Brains turned into mush by exertion of some sort of psionic force."

"Yeah, I've had several encounters with psionically talented races, Doctor," Jack said. "But I've never met one that could turn a brain into mush. Want to, yeah, but capable of it, unless they were telekinetic?"

"There's a few, a very rare few. You probably wouldn't have encountered them because they're noncorporeal and it's hard to flirt with something noncorporeal. They usually exist as either vaguely gaseous beings or waveforms out in the empty reaches where not many other life-forms live. And they only do it in self-defense, when they feel a threat...caused a lot of trouble with exploratory vessels until some Kaltoriens in one case, and, well, me in the other, came through and explained corporeal beings and how they weren't really a threat." He shook his head, then ran his hands through his hair. "But neither the B'ztk nor the Zyz'kzt would ever deliberately work themselves up in strength to kill with such...delight in the killing." He shuddered and, finally, let himself try and briefly hide from the world in Jack's arms. He was so tired already, and the whispers were going to come again soon, and Donna was out there about to die...

Jack moved his hand in soothing circles on the Doctor's back, worried about him but not able to help. "So, you know of two noncorporeal races that have the capability, just not the desire...which means there could be a third. Which probably means we'll have to build something capable of confining them, and then putting them on trial. Which would help a lot if we knew what their habitat was. Clearly not the outer reaches of solar systems, because this is a desert."

Marks rolled his eyes at Harkness, but cleared his throat because he'd actually had an idea. "Maybe they live in ores, and the mining let them loose? Or woke them up to the fact that there're life forms they don't understand banging them up and breaking up their homes and friends?" He stopped talking then, and folded his arms defensively.

"Well, except for the fact that I'm pretty sure there never was any sentient life of any form that evolved on this planet. Still, there are some energy-form races that like to live in ores, and Thyrillium ore is full of energy as it stands...so it's entirely possible they're using the ore to get around and whisper to their victims, then either scramble their brains with psionic overload, or telekinetic assault, or..." He muttered to himself, then suddenly stopped and tilted his head in a listening position.

"What is it, Doctor? Are the whispers back?" Fielding asked, fiddling with a hypospray in case they couldn't keep the Doctor from running off to chase them, like they'd had to do to Janet more times than he wanted to count.

"Nah. It's better than that." He looked up and beamed at Jack, his face-splitting grin reaching his eyes and almost hiding the underlying worry. "It's Donna saying hello."


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: If I owned them, I wouldn't have to write a fix-it :P

Author's Notes: Scary. Continued scary until the whispers are defeated. And the fold-box still owes its origins to 'Glory Road' by Robert Heinlein. Also, I'll be doing NaNoWriMo this year, so updates will be scarce until the end of November. It depends on what insists on being written whenever I've got NaNo writer's block. Sorry about that.

* * *

><p>Chapter 4: Head Games<p>

* * *

><p>"Nah. It's better than that." He looked up and beamed at Jack, his face-splitting grin reaching his eyes and almost hiding the underlying worry. "It's Donna saying hello."<p>

_Yeah, I'll 'hello' you, you prawn. You'd better not be here trying to wipe my memories, or I'll-_

_Donna, no, it's not like that. Not anymore. Erm, thank Jack for that when you see him. Anyway, I'm here, you're here, I have a stasis pod I can tuck you in, all I have to do is find you._

_Stasis pod? What...oh, buying time to fix me. Not really necessary, but thanks all the same, Doctor. I think I've got fixing me under control...I just have to do a couple things first._

_Donna...you're in a mine. What sort of solution can you come up with in a mine? I mean, I know you're brilliant, smarter than me right now, but really, unless you're going to try and use raw Thyrillium ore-_

_Oh shut up before you give me a headache. No I'm not going to use Thyrillium ore, raw or processed, all that would do is buy me a little time by letting me transfer energy through it...or into it with the right bits and bobs attached. Which I might have to do if I can't get Jenny calmed down. Poor girl...somehow she woke up on Messaline after we left and she's been banging about the galaxy trying to be like you...and now she's been stuck here for weeks._

_That can't be Jenny, she died. You've got to be hallucinating._

_I am not hallucinating, you frustrating Martian idiot! She was here before I started being the DoctorDonna again! Now, she'd love to see you, talk to you would be second best, but I'm not sure I can manage adding her to the link So, anything you want me to tell your daughter?_

_Um...well, um, chin up? We'll be together soon? Donna, don't snicker at me, she was dead! _

_And now she's not. But she's terrified, and for the better cure for me to work, I have to get her calmed down so I can explain it all. _

_...are you sure you're not hallucinating? She was dead...and what's getting her calmed down have to do with..oh. Oh. OH! You are brilliant, Donna! Time Lord brain, human-patterned mind...all you have to do is transfer the Time Lord mind to the Time Lord brain! _

_Yeah, yeah, I'm a genius for now. Prawn. Anyway, I was hoping we could get out of here before that, so you could be useful and help keep Jenny from getting a split personality...but we may have to do that later. Only got a three hour window before those wretched, horrible whispers start again...and I think I've got...hmm, five hours left before I burn?_

_...you heard them too? Oh of course you did, never mind, stupid question. Not so stupid question - how __**much**__ did you hear and understand? And I'll get you out of there, I promise._

_Didn't understand any of it until the shriek at the end. Sorry, wasn't quite the DoctorDonna until then. But I know enough to know they're creepy murderers...and don't make promises you can't keep._

_Creepy murderers about sums them up. They lure their victims...and yeah. Take their time in the killing, and a lot of pleasure out of the deed. And...I...I'm..._

_You're scared? Not alone there, Spaceman. I'm terrified, and Jenny's been here so long hearing garbled words and people getting murdered, I'm surprised she can still think, much less talk coherently. Don't you dare do something stupid like go off alone trying to find us either, you hear me?_

_Nope, not going off alone to get murdered, I'm not __**that**__ stupid. Besides, I'm sort of attached to Jack right now - he wouldn't let me wander off. Might be able to send some patrolmen for you...hang on._

_Suuure you're not that stupid. And attached to Jack, huh? I gotta see that._

_Donna! Stop laughing at me!_

Less than five minutes after he'd started talking to Donna, the Doctor looked up at Fielding. "You said you'd been studying Sector 12, right? Any ventilator shafts, back access, way to fry the force-field at the front door? I'd kind of like to get Donna out of there while the whispers are quiet."

Marks shrugged and went to the kitchen area again, while Fielding tucked away the hypospray and started thinking. "Well, there is a ventilator shaft...but it's a straight drop of a hundred fifty feet. Not easy to climb, even though we've got a long enough rope."

"Well, we can always help pull them up, right? Because it seems to me that the only other way of breaking them out is to go in at the front door. Fun, but I'm pretty sure security forces would interrupt us before we were done."

"Fun? You _are_ a nutter," Marks snorted and shook his head. "Besides, it's too dangerous to go out there in the dark."

"Actually, it's out there in the dark alone that's dangerous. A group of two or three should be safe enough, especially during the down time until they're ready to kill again."

"Doctor," Jack said, still holding the clingy Time Lord. "You're not in any shape to go running off to do anything."

"Jaaack," the Doctor drawled, looking at his immortal friend again and finally letting go of his greatcoat. "It's Donna. And my daughter. I have to do _something_."

"Your _daughter_?" Jack goggled at the Doctor. "You never said anything about a daughter!"

"I thought she was dead, Jack. But she's not, and I have to get her and Donna out and safer than they are right now. Then I can concentrate on dealing with these whispers." The Doctor rubbed his face with both hands, then looked up at Fielding and Marks. "Well? Rescue party of two to the ventilation shaft, or do I get to play fun with energy fields?"

"Marks, check and see how close Gibbs is to needing another shot." Fielding ordered, staring at the Doctor who still hadn't left the lap of his...what? Bodyguard? Minder? He supposed it didn't matter - all geniuses were nutters and probably should all have minders...this was just the first one he'd met sensible enough to have one.

"Wouldn't hurt to give her a half-dose, sir." Marks returned, terse as usual.

"Right." Fielding tossed Marks the hypospray. "Half-dose and make it snappy. You," he said, pointing at the Doctor. "Your friend said you're allergic to most sedatives. See if we've got one you're not allergic to, just in case. You," he continued, pointing at Jack after handing the Doctor the proper kit. "Can you leave him alone, or do you have to have him attached to you?"

"Blimey, see if I get involved with the Patrol again," the Doctor muttered, going through the kit and talking to Donna at the same time. _Looks like we're on the way, you just have to find a way to find the ventilation shaft, then wait till we drop a rope on your head._

_You sound loopier than usual, Sunshine. Are you sure you're all right?_

_Eh. Trying to not let the whispers lure me off took a lot out of me. I'm all right though._

_Time Lord all right, I know. Me too._

_Yeah. How's Jenny?_

_Time Lord all right, I think. We can get out of here and find the ventilation shaft. You be careful, all right?_

_Course I will. From the sound of it, I'm not even going to be allowed out in the dark, I'll be safer than you._

_Nutter. Doesn't stop me from worrying about you._

The Doctor sighed as he dropped the comfort of talking mentally to Donna again, then picked out a particular vial. "This one I'm not allergic to, but it'll take a double-dose to do any good."

"All right. Here's the plan, and don't protest because your Captain agreed to it. You're staying here with Marks and Gibbs, and if you start hearing the whispers again, Marks is going to sedate you for all our sakes. Especially yours. Harkness is coming with me because he knows one of the people we're rescuing." Fielding paused, waiting for an argument, but on getting none, glanced at the worried frown Harkness was wearing and continued.

"We'll be back in two hours, neither of us wants to risk being out when the whispers get hungry again. You two stay here, try not to kill each other, and no running off!" He watched the Doctor and Harkness have a silent argument, before the Doctor heaved an exasperated sigh.

"Fine, fine, I'll stay here and work on trying to figure out a better defense against the whispers. And Jack," The Doctor pulled an oversized box from the pocket that looked too small to fit it. "Since you're rescuing Donna, I need to show you how to work the fold-box, so you can get the stasis pod if she starts failing." He spent perhaps five minutes showing his immortal friend how to unfold the box and access the contents stored at each fold, then watched him fold it to the size of a large rucksack and pull out the recessed straps. "There. And yes," he said, exasperated at Jack's look of concern. "If I hear the whispers before you get back, I'll try to take my medicine like a good boy."

"Good." Jack smirked a bit, then hugged the Doctor briefly. "We're just worried, you know that. Be good for you to let someone else do the worrying for a change."

The Doctor rolled his eyes and got off Jack's lap to sit on the stool again. "Yeah yeah, go on. Rescue Donna and my daughter already!"

_Don-na! They're treating me like a child! Make them stop!_

_Oi! What did we say about whinging?_

_...that you'd treat me like a five year old and put me down for a nap? But really, this is embarrassing!_

_You idiot. We're all just worried about you - especially me since you said it took a lot of effort to fight off the whispers luring you away._

_...I know. I just...I'm so used to doing everything for myself._

_Except when I'm doing it for you._

_Yeah. Will you ever forgive me for being an idiot?_

_Which time? Idiot's your default setting._

_...you're laughing at me again. I meant are you going to forgive me for being a complete arse and trying to kill the you that is by wrapping your memories up and making you forget?_

_Yeah, course I'm laughing at you. You're being silly. As for forgiving you...I dunno. You didn't do it, so there's no reason to hold a grudge. But if it wasn't for the TARDIS helping me, you would have, so I just...dunno._

_But you don't hate me?_

_Nah, I don't think I -could- hate you, Spaceman._

_Oh good. Look, they're assembling what they'll need for the trek to the ventilation shaft. You'd best concentrate on Jenny. And...let her know I can't wait to see her again?_

_Course I will. Take care of yourself, Sunshine. And __**be careful.**_

_I will, of course I will. You too, all right?_

_Yeah, course. Got Jenny to look after, don't I? And you'd just better be careful, Sunshine.  
><em>

The Doctor sighed as Donna left his mind again, save for the background presence, and paid attention to the last of Fielding and Jack's discussion. Not that there was much, but he was able to give them some ideas for warding off the whispers. Well, experimental ideas that had never been tested, but they might work. Hopefully they wouldn't be needed, because hopefully by the time the whispers started up again, they'd have Donna and Jenny and be safer_._

* * *

><p><em>felt the mind in the flesh<em>

_it resisted_

_why does it not want to be free?_

_others didn't either_

_pulling them free is tasty_

_pain is tasty_

_stupid flesh bound minds_

_can't stop us_

_can't hear us_

_except for few_

_except for one_

_he listened_

_he heard and understood_

_he fought_

_why?_

_should find out_

_should find him_

_seek the strange mind next cycle_

_the strange mind_

_the time mind_

_the strange time mind we find_

_we take_

_we understand_

_we want the time mind_

_rich_

_strong_

_taste, want to taste_

_...understand first then taste_

_taste and devour_

_no taste...bind instead_

_...bind and let him carry us everywhere_

_carry us to all the other minds_

_rich feeding awaits the binding_

_bind him to us...teach him to feed_

_let him teach us to feed on many at once_

_silly minds protest, he will silence them once we have him_

_...consensus_

_find the strange time mind next feeding cycle_

_study him/claim him/make him ours_

* * *

><p>Fifteen minutes after she'd started talking to the Doctor, she sighed and rolled onto her back. "Blimey, if that's not an exercise in patience, I don't know what is."<p>

"Donna? You're done now with whatever it was?" Jenny propped herself up on an elbow and looked down at the ginger. Hopefully she'd say help was on the way - she was beginning to think she'd never get out of here. Well, alive anyway.

"Talking with your dad? Yeah. Just...give me a minute...and some paracetamol if you have any." Donna sat up and rubbed her temples. "Was more strain than I thought it'd be, talking to him. He said he can't wait to see you again. Oh, and we've a rescue party on the way, so we need to get out of this cavern and find the ventilation shaft."

"Don't have any paracetamol...or any other painkillers. Sorry. But...Dad really wants to see me again?" For the first time since they'd met down in the mine, Jenny looked hopeful and bright. Like she ought to, if she hadn't gone through all this.

"Yeah. 'Course, I had to convince him you were really here, but once he got used to that, he was all about insisting I tell you he missed you and was desperate to see you again. Now, have you been studying that lock on the entrance of this cavern? Cos we really have to get out of here and find the ventilation shaft so we can go meet your dad."

"But...but what about everyone else, Donna? I've been helping them all...I keep their spirits up. What about them when we leave?" Jenny wrapped her arms around herself and made a noise similar to a whimper. She wanted to see her Dad again, and especially wanted to leave all this trouble in his lap to deal with - she was so tired of the whispers every night! But everyone down here...they depended on her to keep them fighting, or they'd all just separate from exhaustion and be whisper-victims.

"Oh sweetheart..." Donna trailed off and shook her head. "The best thing we can do for everyone down here is to go find your dad and work with him to make something that'll stop the whispers. And no, haven't got a clue on that yet, I've been working on a way to fix myself like you asked." Donna smiled wanly at Jenny, and would have started explaining her breakthrough on that, but they were interrupted by someone they'd woken.

"Your friend's right, Jenny," a raspy voice broke in. "Best thing to do right now is get out and deal with the whispers. The Patrol will be looking for me soon enough, and they can shut down the Stamfords. And this mine. But the whispers you've been talking about...those are trouble the Patrol can't deal with." The man closest to them, who'd opened his eyes as he spoke, broke off in a bout of coughing.

"Who's this then?" Donna asked with a frown. That cough didn't sound good...she'd thought that Rennis would have dealt with that by now. Or maybe...her thoughts were interrupted by the sardonic smile of the man.

"Bet you're wondering why I've not had any medical care, yeah? Well, I don't dare - I can't risk drugs that'll make me talk, sure way to kill me what with my allergies. Angus MacPherson, independent courier, pleased to meet you."

"That's nice. Donna Noble, supertemp, likewise I'm sure." She frowned at him, then tilted her head as some of the other information she and the Doctor had been trading while they talked came to the surface. "So...you'd be the missing courier that's part of the reason the Patrol sent a team here?"

"There's a team here already?" The lean, bearded MacPherson scooted closer to them and sat up. "If there's a team here, why hasn't this place been shut down?"

"Cos of the whispers, mostly. But there's something keeping them from calling the calvary in too. Dunno what that is, so don't ask, though my bet's on them being too close to the mines."

"And they've been trying to make sure they've got enough information to completely blow the Stamfords to shreds, no doubt." He coughed again, bent over with the racking spasms. When he finally finished, he got to his knees, then slowly stood. "Well ladies, come on. It's better to be free and fighting back than stuck down here like a rat in a hole." He offered his hand to Jenny, who sighed and took it with reluctance.

"Only because you're sure this is the best way, Angus." She helped Donna up, and the three of them crept through the other groups of sleeping people as quietly as they could. At the cell door, Angus frowned at the lock. "Simple key lock...I could pick this in a heartbeat if I had something long and sturdy enough."

Jenny rolled her eyes. "I could've picked it a long time ago too...except the buggers confiscated my tools."

Donna smirked at the minor contest, and pulled a couple of hairpins out of her hair. "These do?" She was perfectly content to let them do the work of picking the lock - the less she had to use the Time Lord mind, the longer she'd have before she burned. Which meant she'd have plenty of time to explain everything to Jenny. One of these days, she'd have to learn how to pick locks herself...

* * *

><p>On the surface, Fielding and Jack were bouncing over the desert in a...well, he wasn't familiar with the transport, but he'd call it a dune buggy if it didn't have eight wheels and space for eight passengers. And it was a good thing he was strapped in, he thought as they hit a sharp rise, or he'd bounce right out.<p>

"So," Fielding called over the noise of their travel. "What exactly is that box that your genius friend gave you? And how does it work?"

"Haven't a clue how it works, you'd have to ask him for that. I just know how to work it. And besides desert survival tools and other useful stuff, there's a stasis pod deep in there as a last-ditch life-saving measure." And Jack hoped they didn't have to use it...it would be weird to see someone as vibrant and alive as Donna frozen in a moment.

"Must come in handy though, being able to carry all of that in such a small box. Why is it larger now?" Fielding steered the transport around upthrust rocks like teeth against the night sky, then glanced over at Jack for a moment.

"Yeaah, but it's heavy too. And, up to a point, the larger it gets the lighter it weighs. Something about the density of what was packed in there versus the spacial compression...I don't understand it myself, I just take advantage of it."

"Experimental, is it? It'd be useful for missions like this one though." At this point, Fielding's attention was just about all on the HUD, and steering around obstacles that the transport couldn't climb over.

"Experimental, yeah. Not quite as useful as it sounds though...I think there are more limits than just the weight. Plus, the material to build it is pretty rare." Jack gazed out over the screen into the desert and wondered when they'd reach the ventilation shaft.

"Pity. I can see where other, future field teams could get a lot of use out of that." Fielding sighed and shook his head, then began slowing their break-neck speed. "Bout to that ventilator shaft. And I've figured out how to haul them out if they can't climb. Think you can work out how to attach a comm-unit to the end of the rope so it can survive the drop?"

"Easy enough," Jack nodded. "Got a pouch in the box we can put it in, and so long as we don't reel out exactly a hundred-fifty feet of rope, it'll survive the trip."

* * *

><p>After Angus and Jenny had picked the lock (and locked it back - no point in letting the Stamfords' goons know someone had got away before time, and no one else was awake to join their escape anyway), they'd spent an hour looking for the ventilation shaft. And during that hour, Donna had finally managed to explain to Jenny the easiest way for her to save herself.<p>

"So...let me see if I've got this straight," Jenny said as they walked along the tunnels. "You've got a Time Lord mind, but a human brain, and that's lethal eventually because the Time Lord mind needs more than your brain can provide. So the easiest solution is to stuff the Time Lord mind into a Time Lord brain that doesn't have a properly Time Lord mind...which is me."

"Yeah," Donna nodded as she eeled around a tight corner. "If you don't want to take on the burden of your Dad's memories as well as a copy of his mind though...you don't have to. Jack's coming, and he's got a stasis box we can stuff me in till your Dad figures out another way."

"You've mentioned that Dad's memories are a burden at least six times now, Donna. Are they really that hard to bear?" Jenny asked curiously as she followed Donna around the corner, a silent Angus behind her.

"He's had well over nine hundred years of living, Jenny. All the knowledge, all the confidence, all the triumphs...but all the failures and losses too...it's hard to hold it all back, sweetheart. And I worry about how you'd deal with it all."

"But it's the best way to save you, right?" Jenny grabbed Donna by the arm and made her stop and turn to face her.

"Yeah, best way. Not the only way, but the best way." Donna reluctantly agreed. Hopefully she could convince Jenny to wait till they got to the Doctor so he could be part of the transfer and strain out all his personal junk.

"So we'll do it as soon as we're rescued...right?" Jenny scowled determinedly at Donna. She wasn't losing the only person in the universe who had the right to be her mum...not to anything but old age if she could help it. So, powers help Donna if she said no.

"Not exactly. We'll need a safer place than right there on top of the ventilation shaft. But soon after, yeah." Donna smiled and patted Jenny's hand, then gently detached it so she could check on Angus, who was doubled over in another coughing fit. "You all right there?"

"Will be...when we're...out..." he wheezed. "Just gotta...get...out..."

"All three of us, mate." Donna nodded, then grinned at the light breeze brushing her cheek. "Nearly there, c'mon Angus, you can toddle a bit further. Jenny, help me with him, yeah?"

"Yeah, sure, of course." Jenny replied and backtracked the few steps needed to get to Angus. And, twined together, the three of them proceeded until they made it to the base of the ventilation shaft.

* * *

><p>Up above, Fielding and Jack had made it to the ventilation shaft, and Jack had unfolded the box just enough to get to the pouch he'd mentioned. They stuffed the spare comm unit inside, then attached it to the rope, That end was released down the shaft to fall for a hundred-forty-five feet, the remaining fifty-five affixed to the transport and ready to use to haul away if needed.<p>

Five uneasy minutes after they'd dropped the rope, there was a crackle from Fielding's wrist-unit. "Hope whoever's on the other end of this is as Patrol as the equipment," a man's voice came through. "Captain Angus MacPherson, in company with Captain Jenny Smith and Miss Donna Noble."

"C-captain MacPherson?" Fielding sputtered at the name of the missing courier. "You'll need to prove yourself!"

Racking, phlem-laden coughs were carried over the comm-line, followed by the same male voice, gasping this time. "Prove...self...out of...here...okay?"

The next voice to come over the comm-unit was female, brash and ever so familiar to Jack Harkness. "Oi, up there! Me and Jenny can climb, but we're gonna need a few more feet of rope for Angus here!"

"Donna?" Jack laughed in relief and took the wrist-unit from Fielding at his gesture. "Oh it's good to hear your voice! Hang on a minute, we'll drop some more rope so you can make a harness for Captain MacPherson."

"I don't believe it. Hallo Captain Hotpants. Been straightening things out with the Doctor, I hear." Donna snickered and shook her head, though no one above could see it. "Anyway, more rope will help, but I'm not sure any of us can make it all the way to the top, so I hope you've got a way to pull us up if we falter."

Fielding was unwinding another twenty feet of rope and guiding it down the shaft as Jack continued. "Yeah, there were a few things I had to set him straight on, but he's sensible now. Ah...how's your head? And yeah, we're able to pull you up if you need it."

"Just fine at the moment, thanks." was the reply. Down below Jack, Donna was making loops in the rope for herself and Jenny to stick hands and feet through, and a harness for MacPherson to have 'round himself if he stopped being able to climb. "Bit surprised you left himself alone, though. Who knows what trouble he'll get into without someone to watch over him?"

"Doubt he's getting up to anything - there's another Patrolman looking after him, so don't worry so much okay?" Jack and Fielding consulted a minute, then Fielding re-checked the rope's attachment to his transport and got behind the wheel once more. "Okay, we're ready for you lot to start climbing. If you haven't already, Donna, strap the comm-unit to your wrist so you can tell me if any of you start having trouble."

"I just hope the other Patrolman's up to the task of looking after that mad Spaceman." Donna snorted, then there was a rustle of comm-unit being strapped on. "There. You know, you dropped enough rope for Jenny and I to have hand-holds as well as to make a harness for MacPherson, so you could save us a lot of effort by just pulling us up."

"We could, yeah." Jack thought a moment, then went and consulted with Fielding again. A method of coordinating reached, Jack started talking again. "Okay, we'll start pulling in ten seconds, so be ready."

Down below, Donna triple-checked that MacPherson couldn't come out of the harness without a rope, then nodded to Jenny to grab the hand-and-footholds. "Okay, we're ready..whoa!"

* * *

><p>Up above, Fielding had started the transport and begun pulling away, leaving Jack in a mild panic. "Donna! Donna, is everything all right?"<p>

"Yeah," Donna replied from below. "It's all fine, just wasn't expecting it. We're all on our way up, hotstuff, so don't worry."

"Hah!" Jack snorted. "Haven't done anything -but- worry since I found out you and the Doctor had been seperated by the TARDIS. So forgive me if I worry untill I see that ginger mop of yours, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." There was a faint sound of convulsive coughing over the wrist unit, then Donna's voice returned. "Think you could haul us up faster? Either the movement or the whatever crud he's got, or both, is making MacPherson weaker, and I've gathered he's pretty important."

"Sure, yeah, hang on. But you'll have to pay close attention to your rate of transit so I can keep you all from damage when you reach the top." He signalled Fielding to go faster, and stepped closer to the hole so he could keep watch.

"That's one thing the Time Lord mind's good at, Hotstuff. We're fifty feet up, and the rate of ascent is a foot a second now."

"Fielding's going faster than I thought then. Is that good for the three of you, or do I have to slow him down yet?"

"Nah, not just yet." There was silence a moment, then Donna's voice returned. "So Jack, how come you're here with the Doctor?"

"A combination of my team agreeing that he needed someone to look after him, and the TARDIS insisting I come along." was the reply. "And before you ask, he agreed with Fielding that I should come along on your rescue." Well, more like he'd been talked into it, but he really wasn't in any shape to come along anyway.

"Ah. He can be a stubborn git, can't he?" Donna would have said more, but she had to say something else instead. "Slow us down now Jack, we're about twenty feet from the top."

"Right." He gesticulated in the agreed-on signal, and Fielding slowed down. "Better now?" Jack asked, taking up a position right by the rope now.

"Yep. You'll have Jenny first, then me, then MacPherson in the harness. Be ready, Jenny will be there in half a minute."

"Oh, go teach your grandmother how to suck eggs," Jack grumbled. And before Donna could reply, there was a blonde head shining in the light, so he reached down and helped what -had- to be the Doctor's daughter out of the ventilation shaft. Twenty seconds later, that glorious ginger mop appeared, and he helped Donna out, and another twenty seconds lead to the appearance of a dark-haired man roped into a harness.

Once everyone had popped up, he made the gesture for 'stop', then watched Donna and the Doctor's daughter get the man MacPherson out of the harness. And then he swept Donna into the hug he should have given her the first time he'd met her...and would have, save for the Doctor's glowering.

"It's -good- to see you again, Donna!"

"Put me down, you idiot!" she squawked, but she did hug him back. "Good to see you too - better when my feet are on the ground, got it?"

"Yes ma'am!" He laughed and put her down, then smiled flirtatiously at the blonde girl as Fielding rejoined the group to take care of MacPherson. "Captain Jack Harkness - and you are?"

"Captain Jenny Smith," was his reply. Well, that and a handshake. He supposed she'd be more receptive later...unless she was too much like her father, in which case he'd never get anywhere.

"Right, nice to meet you both, ladies. But right now we need to get Captain MacPherson to the shelter where we've got the medicine he needs." Fielding, half-carrying MacPherson, interrupted, gesturing them all to the transport a hundred and seventy feet away. They all piled in and shifted the last row of seats to make a bed for MacPherson to lie on. Then, once everyone was strapped in, Fielding settled himself behind the controls and drove them at top speed through the desert back toward the shelter.

* * *

><p><em>time mind<em>

_strange time mind_

_found you_

_you will be ours_

_we claim you_

* * *

><p>In the shelter, the Doctor stiffened. The whispers were back, and talking about him directly. This was bad, very very very bad. He hadn't had a chance to rest enough to fight them properly again, and he was horribly afraid that the sedative he'd agreed to earlier would let them just...kill him. Or whatever else they had in mind, which would be bad for Marks and Gibbs. So while Marks was occupied in the kitchen area, he quietly shed his long coat and his suit-coat for ease of sneaking out...and, though he'd lose time in the doing, took the long moments necessary to cut Donna's connection to his mind, despite the pain of losing her again. He couldn't let the whispers sense her, and he couldn't stick around and endanger Marks and Gibbs when he lost the fight that was coming.<p>

* * *

><p><em>time mind<em>

_ours_

_we claim you_

_claim us and live for always_

* * *

><p>He was almost to the door when Marks turned around and caught him in the act of escaping. "Hey!" the man shouted. "Get back here or I'll sedate you!"<p>

The Doctor watched Marks approach with heavy hearts, and sighed when the Patrolman pulled the hypospray out. "I'm sorry Steven Marks, I'm so, so sorry. But everything's changed, and I can't let myself put you at risk." A moment more to wait while Marks charged him, a dodge to the side to avoid the hypospray and a swift uppercut later, and Marks was laid out unconscious...and hopefully safe from the whispers.

* * *

><p><em>come to us time mind<em>

_you are ours_

_we are yours_

_come to us and claim us_

_we claim you, come claim us_

* * *

><p>The Doctor gripped his head tightly in both hands and whimpered. Oh if only Fielding had taken Marks instead of Jack! Jack wouldn't have let him knock him out...Jack would have helped him fight the whispers and their lures...their temptations. But now without Jack, without anyone he could trust, all he could do was run, run, run...run so far away from the frail humans that he would be endangering.<p>

Somewhere in the back of his mind, a voice was screaming for him to stop, that he'd be breaking his promise to Donna. But, he thought as he opened the door of the shelter and slipped out, keeping her safe was worth every bit of danger to himself. Keeping her safe was worth breaking every promise ever made - hadn't he proved that once already by being willing to steal her memories and basically kill her to keep her alive?

Donna alive was worth everything. Even if she hated him ever after for the enormous risk to himself he was taking now. "I'm so sorry Donna, Jenny, I'm so, so sorry," he whispered as he ran away from the shelter. Ran away from the whispers that were sure to stalk him. Ran away from his own safety, to preserve the safety of all he held dear to his hearts - his daughter and the Most Important Woman in his Universe.

* * *

><p><em>run away<em>

_hide away time mind_

_we will find you_

_you will be ours_

_we will be yours_

_we will be one_

* * *

><p>Ten minutes later, the transport arrived, and Fielding used the remote to open the shelter's garage. But he stopped halfway in when he saw Marks waver unsteadily towards the transport.<p>

"Marks, what the hell happened man?"

"The Doctor, he knocked me out and ran off. Ten minutes ago...you'll never find him now."


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer - I don't own them, I'm just going quasi-Moff on them.

Author's Note - Well, here we are, the beginnings of a lot of Doctor-whump. As standard, do NOT read after dark! Also, changed from Drama to Horror to more properly represent the story.

* * *

><p>Chapter 5 - Danger Zone<p>

* * *

><p>The Doctor ran as fast as he could across the desert, his only light the dim starlight. As he ran, he cursed in every language he knew. Cursed the whispers, cursed himself for not leaving more of a message with Marks...he even cursed himself for running, but running was his only option to keep them all safe. Sedation wouldn't have helped, not with the whispers wanting to join with him. It would have just kept him from fighting...and they would have all been surprised when he woke up not himself. He couldn't bear that, especially not for Donna's sake. Or Jenny's.<p>

_run away to us _

_time mind runs and fears_

_time mind is angry too_

_come time mind_

_come join us_

_warm us with your anger_

_feed us with your fear_

_join with us_

_come to us_

"Shut up shut up SHUT UP!" The Doctor fell to his knees at top of a dune, clutching his head and whimpering on every exhale when he saw the cliff ahead, blocking further progress away. He'd trapped himself, and the whispers knew it - unless there was a way for him to climb the cliff before they got there. They had to have a range limit, didn't they?

He reached for the last scraps of hope and staggered to his feet, then trotted down the dune to investigate the indentation in the cliff. Like a half-circle it was, almost...and was that? Yes! A cleft in the cliff that looked like it might provide passage! He jogged toward it...then skidded to a halt when pale blue wisps of energy began to rise in front of it. "Oh nonononono," he muttered, and turned to run back out - but there were more wisps the way he'd come.

_time mind has come!_

_you came to us_

_you will join with us_

_feed us_

_live always with us_

_take us everywhere_

_as we take YOU!_

* * *

><p>The argument between Jack and Fielding had been going for five minutes when Donna put her fingers to her lips and blew a sharp, piercing whistle. "Enough!" she shouted.<p>

She paused for a moment to make sure they were going to keep shut, then continued. "All right, enough of that. Now you...Marks, right? Did the Doctor say anything before he knocked you for six?"

Marks scowled and rubbed his jaw, but nodded. "Yeah, he said 'I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry. But everything's changed, and I can't let myself put you at risk.' Then he dodged my attempt to sedate him and knocked me out."

"Right then." Donna said firmly, after she'd had a few moments to run that through her augmented mind and paled at the implications. "You and Fielding and Hotpants there will go look for him. He was running from the whispers, and in the interest of increased distance he wouldn't have taken time to hide his trail. Bloody idiot runs fast though, so go! Jack, be careful, and don't any of you approach him if he says stay back." She hugged herself a moment, not wanting to share what she had deduced, but she had to make them aware of the risks. "I think...I think the whispers found out he's different, and they want to possess him instead of kill him."

Jack said something foul in H'drasik, then said. "That's going to be a disaster if they succeed. I take it that's why you haven't claimed the stasis pod?"

"Yeah," Donna nodded. "Might have to slap him in it to keep him safe. Or secure him, if worse comes to worst. Now g'wan, get after him! There's three of us here and awake, that'll keep us safe." She glared at the two Patrolmen until they joined Jack in the transport, and watched as they drove away following the faint trail the Doctor had left behind.

"You're still going to do that transfer thing you were talking about, Ms. Noble, right?" MacPherson asked, for the moment breathing easy. "Don't mean to sound callous Jenny, but this is the best time with those monsters interested in your dad."

"Do I look like a Ms. to you?" Donna blustered, then sighed and rubbed her face. "Sorry, sorry, I'm just worried about that daft git. And call me Donna, for goodness sake." She looked at Jenny, who had a determined scowl on her face, and nodded then sighed again and said, "Yeah, we're gonna do it. Let's get inside though."

Jenny nodded and put her arm around the lean captain she'd come to know over the last month. "C'mon Angus, we can get you something for that cough real quick, then we can save Donna." She sighed as she and Donna helped Angus into the shelter, and hoped that they wouldn't have to save her dad from the whispers. Hopefully that flirt and the Patrolmen would come back with Dad in stasis and no whispers...

* * *

><p>"Bear left a little if you can!" Jack shouted from his standing position, clutching the windscreen and wearing night-sight lenses.<p>

"After we get around this boulder," Fielding called from his position as driver, watching the HUD and steering them around the sand-shrouded boulder that would have ripped out the axles if he'd tried to go over it. "Okay, left you said?"

"Three degrees," Jack confirmed, then blinked the lenses to act like binoculars. "We've got a biggish dune in about a mile, he went straight up it."

"So," Marks started, "what exactly are you and that ginger afraid of will happen? He's just a genius, right? How is he so different that the whispers want him?"

Jack sighed, but kept his position. "He's not just a genius, he's a Time Lord. And that makes him so very special...and so very terrifying if the whispers get him. He's stopped time for himself before, and if they get him to take him to his time-ship...well, that's all she wrote when it comes to everything. They could go anywhere, anytime and kill everyone in the universe."

"Fucking hell," both Patrolmen breathed, and Fielding accelerated until they were bouncing again, and Jack had to hold even tighter. "So, what do we do if they've got him?"

"Hope he can fight them long enough for us to get him and them into stasis. Then we can work on getting them out of him." 'Hold on, Doctor', Jack thought, hoped, as he fell into his seat when the transport took the steep slope of the dune. 'Just hang on. We're almost there.'

They crested the dune and roared down the leeward slope, then Fielding brought the transport skidding to a halt at the sight a little less than a hundred feet before them. The Doctor stood in his shirtsleeves, surrounded by blue wisps of energy that, even as they tumbled from the transport, started slamming into him as he tried a futile attempt at escape, jerking him in every direction imaginable except up.

Jack watched the scene before them with his heart in his mouth, then shrugged off the fold-box and started desperately unfolding it. He wasn't sure what good it would do to shove a possessed Doctor into it, but it would surely be better than leaving him free. He glanced up just as the last wisp slammed into the Doctor, knocking him to the ground, and saw Fielding and Marks starting to approach him. "No! Stay back!"

"He's got to be captured, Harkness," Fielding snapped. "We can't just leave him there - you saw all those wisps - and they didn't leave him either!"

"Yeah, but presuming the wisps are the whispers, you're attempting to approach something that can kill with a thought." He sighed - he really hated having to explain himself to people, but he couldn't let them get killed when they wouldn't come back. "Look - a long time ago something weird happened to me. Short form is, I can't die for good. I don't usually tell people for obvious reasons, but I can't just stand here and let you two get killed. I'll go."

Ignoring the stares from the Patrolmen, Jack pulled the stasis box out of the last iteration, then smirked at them. "With luck, I'll be able to grab him - you two will just have to flip the lid open so I can dump him in."

"Good luck," Marks snorted. "And what if he kills you - what then?"

"Stay away from him, if he won't leave see if you can chase him off. Then shove the pod back in the box, fold it up and drag me back. I should come back in half an hour or so...depending on how much damage gets done." He gave Fielding a very quick explanation for the box, then left the two men behind to cautiously approach the Doctor. "Doctor? You still in there?" He asked when he was ten feet away.

"...Jack..." the Doctor harshly whispered, straining to keep control through the will of the whispers. "...go...get away..."

"Can't do that, Doctor. Just keep fighting them off, and I can get you in the stasis pod." Jack continued a slow approach, but at five feet the Doctor rolled to a crouch and snarled at him.

"Get back, Jack! I can't...can't...just go!" His head tilted back, and, eyes closed, the Doctor let out a scream of agony and despair, then he slumped to his knees, head hanging down.

Jack shuffled a little closer, then staggered back in surprise as the Doctor stood suddenly, though his head was still hanging, chin nearly touching his chest. "Doctor?"

"You should have listened, stupid one," was his reply from a multitude of voices somehow issuing from the Doctor's mouth. His head lifted and his eyes opened to reveal, not the usual brown orbs, but a swirling mass of blue energy. "Now you die," the entities possessing the Doctor said, and pointed a finger at Jack's head.

Thirty feet away, Fielding and Marks watched in stunned horror, not even thinking to reach for their guns as Harkness screamed and dropped to the ground, convulsing and making the most horrible noises for almost five minutes before he died. They backed further away, barely noticing the expression of almost orgasmic bliss that crossed over the Doctor's face, and ducked behind the transport before his eyes opened again.

"So much richness...much better taste...such...pleasure...oh, much better than before," the voices murmured. "We should have remembered this from long ago...so long ago...run away, little scared silly ones. We will see you again...when once again we hunger." And the Doctor's body turned and loped away, ducking fluidly into the crevice in the cliff that the two Patrolmen only noticed when he melted into the darkness of it.

* * *

><p>Trapped deep within the entities controlling his body, the Doctor shivered in sick horror and tried futilely to pull his mind away from the whispers twined about him once more. He'd felt their hunger...and he'd felt the pain and terror and death that they caused and fed on...and Rassilon help him, he'd<em> enjoyed<em> it almost as much as they had, for the period of time it took them to make a meal of Jack. He couldn't remain twined with them for much longer, or he'd lose himself...but he didn't know how much longer he could fight...especially if they kept feeding while possessing him. The sheer bliss and unspeakable pleasure were...addictive...worse than any drug.

_no more fighting time mind_

_no more silly struggle_

_futile to fight_

_we have you_

_we will keep you forever_

_join with us properly_

_it was good feeding_

_rich and flavourful_

_feel the true pleasure of feeding_

_you only felt the edge of it_

_you only tasted_

_No. I won't. I can't. Stop this and let me go - let everyone go!_

_you are ours forever_

_ours_

_ours_

_claim us_

_No. No I won't. You may have my body, but you don't have __**me.**_

_we will_

_you can't fight forever_

_you will be us, we will be you_

_and all will feed us_

_first this planet_

_then the universe itself_

* * *

><p>A few minutes after they'd recovered from the horror of witnessing the whispers in the Doctor killing and feeding, Fielding and Marks came back around the transport, shoulders slumped in shame that they'd been too terrified to do anything but hide.<p>

"I'll go get Harkness' body, you pack that back up," Marks whispered, afraid that though they'd seen the possessed Doctor run off, that he was circling back and could hear them.

"Yeah," Fielding replied, whispering as well. "Hell if I know what we're going to do when we get back though."

"Doesn't matter right now. We get back, we'll figure it out then." Marks left Fielding's side then and cautiously approached the dead body. "I hope he wasn't kidding when he said he'd come back," he muttered and grabbed Jack's heels to haul him back to the transport. By the time he'd reached Fielding, his superior had managed to get the pod back in the box and get it folded down to rucksack size again. "Oh good, you're done. Help me heave him in, would you?"

"Sure, just let me strap this into one of the seats," Fielding replied. When he was finished, he grabbed the corpse under the arms, and both men lifted him into the back of the transport and sighed as they set him down. "Strap him in, I'll get us headed back."

"Yeah, yeah, I get all the dirty jobs. Why can't I drive us back and you deal with the body?" Marks almost whined as he fastened straps around the dead body to keep it from jolting out.

"Because you never qualified on HUD driving and it's the middle of the bloody night, that's why." Fielding sighed and rubbed his face, then started the motor. He did wait for Marks to sit down and strap in, though, before turning the machine around for the drive back. A drive in which neither man said anything, and the only sound was the whine of the wind and the thrum of the motor.

* * *

><p>In the shelter after the rescue party departed, Donna and Jenny had insisted on medicating Angus before they started the transfer. Once they'd gotten that accomplished, over much fussing from their stubborn patient, Donna dragged two cushions to the floor and motioned Jenny to join her.<p>

"All right, it's time to begin. Have you ever established a link with anyone before?" Donna asked as she scooted closer until her knees touched Jenny's.

"No. What's it like?" Jenny asked curiously once Donna had gotten positioned where she wanted to be.

"Well, you'll find out the most intense version in a minute or two. Now, put your hands on my face like I am on yours," Donna paused and reached over to touch Jenny's face, finding the contact points with ease. "And close your eyes...and I'll try to keep it from overwhelming you."

"All right," Jenny sighed and put her hands on Donna's face, then adjusted a couple of fingers until they tingled like the rest of her fingertips, then closed her eyes. "Okay, done it. Now what?"

"Just relax and let me in, sweetheart." Donna said, and closed her eyes and _reached_ for the mind just across from her.

_Bloody hell, you weren't kidding were you?_

_Nope. But that's Time Lord intensity you're feeling right now. Here, let me show you one trick I had to learn from necessity, then we can start the transfer._

_Wow. So that's how I'll mostly keep me safe from Dad's memories unless I have to access them?_

_Yeah. Ready to become a full Time Lady?_

_Bring it on!__ ...um, Donna? Why is it so slow?_

_Cos I don't want you to have a headache. Ooh, you've got a nifty organizational system...probably helps that you're not getting it all dumped in at once._

_Yeah, I like to keep organized. Oops, saw that memory. Ouch, that had to have hurt!_

_S'all right, it only lasted a few minutes. Think you can handle it a little faster? I'm starting to get headache._

_Donna, you could let the rest just rush, and I'll just stay in a trance until I get it all organized._

_I don't feel right just dumping it all on you, all right? I can deal with it. Be easier for later on as well if you weren't stuck in a trance. _

_Riiiight. Just let it come faster already._

_Cheeky sweetheart, aren't you? All right - let me know if it's too much at once._

_I'm good so far. But...aren't you going to miss thinking so much faster and knowing everything Dad does?_

_Maybe a little. And if you don't mind, I'll keep a copy of how to pilot the TARDIS - I do love that old girl, she's a darling. You'll love meeting her when we get to her._

_Course you can keep a copy, don't be silly! I just wish..._

_Wish what, Jenny?_

_That Dad was here too - he'd be so proud of both of us._

_I know. Silly daft lovable idiot...well, we deal with what we've got._

_Yeah. Why're you slowing down again?_

_Cos we're nearly done._

_Oh. Wow, that was fast!_

_Really? How can you tell?_

_Because I've always been able to tell how much time is passing, and it's only been almost fifteen minutes._

_Blimey, that __is__ fast! Here's the last of it...I really thought it'd take longer than fifteen minutes though._

_I guess the Time Lord mind really wanted a Time Lord brain to be in. _

_Guess so. Well, this is all done - you'll have to be the one to cut me loose...just a human mind with a human brain, now._

_Well all right. I'll miss being this close to you though Donna._

_Me too kiddo. Now get on with separating us._

"Are you always that bossy, Donna?" Jenny asked once she'd ended the link and lifted her hands free of Donna's face.

"Meh. Not always. Seems like more often than not with your Dad though," she replied, letting her hands fall away and opening her eyes.

"You nag Dad a lot. But he was being stupid, or hiding stuff from you, so I guess that's okay. And he does need lots of taking care of, doesn't he?" Jenny gave Donna a wry smile, eyes sparkling.

"You can say that again!" Donna laughed, then gave Jenny a concerned look. "Are you sure you're all right though?"

"Yes, I really am all right. And not what you and Dad have started calling 'Time Lord Alright' either." Jenny made the air-quotes even, then smiled and got to her feet with the nimbleness and energy of the young. "Well, except for a gaping hole in my stomach. I'll go fix us something to eat, then we can start contingency planning."

"And maybe some paracetamol? Still got headache, even though the pressure's gone." Donna said somewhat plaintatively as she climbed to her feet.

"Just give me a minute to go through the drugs," Jenny said, and changed course to the rather large medical kit that had been left lying about after they'd medicated Angus. She rummaged for a minute, then popped up with a small bottle of pills. "These'll do. Take one and that should get rid of the headache." She tossed the bottle to Donna, who fumbled the catch a bit, then went to the tiny kitchen area to hot up some meal packs for the three of them.

* * *

><p>Half an hour later saw the two women pacing in the shelter, worried that the Patrolmen hadn't returned yet.<p>

"Jenny, Donna, sit down. Pacing is only going to wear you both out. We'll find out what happened when they get back." Angus, his breathing much easier now that he'd been medicated and fed something hot, managed to heave himself off the couch to intercept them.

"Oh sit back down," Jenny said and fussed over the only support she'd had while stuck in the mine. "I know you've been dosed up, but you're still sick." She got him sat back down, then headed for the kitchen area, almost running into Donna. "I feel so useless stuck here."

Donna dodged Jenny, sighed, and got another cup of what passed for tea in the shelter. "Something's gone wrong, I know it has. They've taken too long for just a simple chase. And here we are, stuck here and completely useless, just waiting." She sipped at the cup and tried to smile, really she did, but it came out more of a grimace. "Why they couldn't have two transports I dunno..."

"Probably budget cuts," was the somewhat astonishing reply from Jenny. Well, astonishing until Donna realised that Jenny had been eight months or more alone and had learned a lot while trying to keep herself going.

"Figures." Donna didn't try for a smile again, just wrapped her hands around the cup and let the warmth sink in. It hadn't touched that cold little ball of nerves inside yet, but it was a comfort. "At least they didn't get the budget cut back so's all they could afford was tents - s'a pretty nice shelter, all things considered."

"Tents? Don't think I've ever seen one of those," Jenny murmured, then tilted her head. "Was that...yes, that was the door for the vehicle storage - they're back!" With that, she bolted off to find out what'd been going on, leaving Donna behind to drop her cup and yelp as she was spattered with hot liquid, then chase after.

* * *

><p>It had been a cold and unpleasant drive back to their camp, and Fielding and Marks were wondering if Harkness had been exaggerating about his supposed ability to return from death. In the time they'd taken returning, there hadn't been a single sign of life from the back where they'd strapped in the corpse.<p>

And still wasn't when Fielding shut down the engine simultaneously with the eruption of the two women who'd been hauled out of the mine along with MacPherson. The pretty blonde looked upset, while the stroppy ginger just sighed and shook her head. "Not again. So, it's pretty obvious things went to hell - what actually happened out there?"

"We caught up to that Doctor of yours too late, is what," Marks said and got out of the transport. "We got there just in time to see these blue wisps attacking him. Harkness there said he was the best bet to try and catch the poor git because he'd come back to life, but...well, those wisps which are probably the whispers have control of the Doctor now, and he killed Harkness. And the silly tit hasn't come back yet."

"Which silly tit?" Donna snorted then shook her head. "Never mind, we'll deal with the Doctor later. I'm sure between all of us we can figure a way to contain him till we can get him dispossessed. Obviously he ran off - which way did he go?"

Fielding commented this time, while unstrapping Jack's corpse. "We can show you in the daylight. There's some cliffs, and he eeled into a crevice or cleft. Couldn't tell which in the available lighting. We're not going back there until later tomorrow though - we have to pack and move the shelter for our own safety, since the Doctor knows where it is."

"Might be a clue about the origins of the whispers down that cleft," Jenny commented from the front of the transport. She was eying Jack's corpse with an odd expression; nose wrinkled, a frown knitting her eyebrows together and her lips twitching nervously. And oh, she wanted to snap at all of them for seeming to treat what'd happened to her Dad so casually...but even she wasn't capable of haring off after him to save him from the whispers right now.

Still eying Jack's body, she scowled and rubbed the back of her neck and the base of her skull. "Donna? Why's the inside of my head itching?" Before Donna could answer, there was a loud gasping inhale of breath from the back of the transport and Jack sat bolt upright, eyes darting all around in a state of panic.


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: The BBC owns 'em, I'm just taking them out to play with. And torture the Doctor, but that happens a lot, especially in canon. :P

Author's Notes: I think I might, just might have reached Moff-levels of scary this time. The chapter title shares a title with an Andre Norton book, but there are no real resemblance to the wraiths in that book...at least, not that I intended or have spotted. If any resemblances _do_ surface, please consider the Grand Master of Science Fiction credited.

And I have to thank tkelparis, who helped me figure out an enormous sticking point for this chapter. Love ya!

Last but not least. In accordance to the FFN notice of June 4, this story is now rated 'M', for it's occasional use of adult language, and for it's constant use of adult themes. Doctor whump definitely qualifies as an adult theme.

Love to my reviewers and readers!

* * *

><p>Chapter 6 - the Wraiths of Time<p>

* * *

><p>Previously:<p>

_Still eying Jack's body, she scowled and rubbed the back of her neck and the base of her skull. "Donna? Why's the inside of my head itching?" Before Donna could answer, there was a loud gasping inhale of breath from the back of the transport and Jack sat bolt upright, eyes darting all around in a state of panic._

Donna ignored Jenny's question in favour of trying to calm Jack down, and thus missed a certain distancing in her expression. Jack needed a bit of talking to, apparently, and she wondered what had happened to make him so panicked. "Hey, easy there Jack. Come on, deep breaths and calm down. You're safe, it's okay now..."

Slowly, or so it seemed to everyone watching, Jack's breathing slowed as Donna kept murmuring reassurances to him. Until finally he lost the air of a hunted animal - coincidentally, about the time Donna finally deemed him calm enough to release from the hug she'd wrapped him in. "There now gorgeous, you're safe, you're back. And you can tell us what made you so panicked once you're on the outside of soup and a cuppa."

Jenny frowned curiously while pushing aside the copy of her dad's persona that came along with the rest of everything. Jack had died a lot before, her dad had witnessed a couple of his revivals even. And he never woke up panicked like that - not that her dad had ever seen, anyway - so what had happened to make this time so bad? Something to do with the whispers, obviously...but what?

Confused - and annoyed that the copy of her dad wouldn't shut up and let her think - she followed the group back to the shelter in silence, and settled down on an out of the way cushion. She didn't want to draw Donna's attention to her problem, so she kept quiet while everyone else bustled about until Jack was ready to talk. At least the tale kept her copy-Dad quiet for a few minutes...

"...they're worse than we thought to begin with," Jack was saying around his cup of ersatz tea. "And that was bad enough, that they caused so much pain and torment to feed off of while they killed their victims." He shuddered, and drank down the rest of the 'tea', although it didn't help much. "They steal the minds of their victims. I could feel them pulling at me before I died," He shuddered all over, then looked off into nothing as he continued. "I have never been so terrified of dying, ever. What would've happened if they'd managed to wrench my mind away from my body?"

"What's the point of stealing the minds of their victims though?" Donna wondered as she dodged the agitated Fielding and Marks on her way to give Jenny a cup of 'tea'. "I mean, seriously, what's the point? They're dead, murdered by the whispers. So why keep their minds?"

Jenny suddenly felt all eyes on her, not just Donna's, and reached for the cup of tea. She held it clasped in her hands and sighed. "I don't know why, so stop looking at me. The most I could do right now is make some very unpleasant guesses."

"So make the guesses," Marks shouted. "Those whispers killed three good friends of ours, and now we find out they're keeping their minds prisoner for...what? Make some guesses! We need to know this!"

Over Donna and Jack's protests, Jenny stood up, cup still held in her hands and only Donna between her and Marks kept her from getting in his face. "You want my guesses? Fine! But don't come crying to me when you get nightmares from them!" She huffed, then sipped the tea to try and buy herself some calm. Not that it worked. "There's really only two possibilities I can think of. Either they're keeping the minds of their victims to keep feeding on their continued suffering...or," She paused and swallowed a lump in her throat. "Or...they're planning on using their prisoners for reproduction."

The shelter was silent for a few minutes while those unpleasant thoughts sank in. Until it was broken by Janet Gibbs waking up and asking what all the hubbub was. Oh, and could they stop being so angry, it was giving her a headache.

Fielding and Marks went to tend to their teammate, leaving Jenny standing with a mug of tea in her hands and Donna's hand on her shoulder. "It'll be all right, sweetheart," Donna murmured reassuringly. "We'll get the TARDIS as soon as the suns are up, and we'll all help to figure out a way to get the Doctor and the other prisoners free of the whispers."

"Yeah," Jenny finished her tea, then handed the cup back to Donna as she grimaced. "I have to...have to become Dad to save him though. So I'll be over here on this cushion...think you could keep everyone off my back till it's time to get the TARDIS?"

"Oh sweetheart, no..." Donna's protest was nearly stillborn once confronted by the steadfastly determined expression on Jenny's face. She then sighed and squeezed the girl's shoulder. "All right, I'll keep all that lot off your back. But...don't lose yourself, yeah? It wouldn't be right to save your dad and lose you in the doing."

It was a tiny little smile Jenny made, but it was real, and that was enough. "I'll be careful, Donna, I promise. I don't want to lose me in saving Dad either." She hugged the ginger, made a sad little wave at Jack and Angus, then dragged her cushion over to the wall and settled down with a sigh. She was going to be very busy for what was left of the night.

* * *

><p>Through the cleft in the cliff that the possessed Doctor had slipped through, was a several-acre depression half-filled with sand and surrounded by more cliffs. The Doctor barely noticed that there were quite a number of space ships surrounding him - enough to make this little bowl in the desert look like a used ship lot.<p>

He wasn't really concentrated on his surroundings though; not only did he have to deal with the aftermath of Jack's murder and the enjoyment his invaders had take in it, but he also had to try and retake his body. Or at least figure out how they'd wrested control away from him in the first place. Distracted thusly, he didn't notice that his body was moving toward one particular ship until the whispers took him inside it.

_we felt your curiosity_

_you want to know where we came from_

_came from here_

_trapped in tiny boxes_

_hungry/hungry/so very hungry/starving_

_silly minds landed ship wrong_

_that opened our boxes_

_let us escape into the rock_

_nice rock had energy_

_energy let us flow within it_

_couldn't feed on it_

_but it lead us to minds to feed on_

_tasty minds, full of fear and despair_

_lead us to you too_

_new vessel_

_new host to travel in_

_we had forgotten until we felt your mind_

_forgotten that we could take hosts_

_forgotten how much tastier feeding was with a host_

_Yes, well you should have forgotten it forever. I have friends, they'll free me and stop you._

_silly time mind, no one can stop us now_

_no one knows us_

_no one remembers how to defeat us_

_been too long since home_

_since xel'xiori_

_Rassilon...you're the Wraiths of Xel'xiori! But that's impossible! They were all destroyed aeons ago by the Eternals!_

_nasty ones_

_tried to destroy us all_

_we were clever, we escaped_

_put ourselves in tiny boxes to hide_

_we knew others would open the boxes eventually_

_didn't know it would take so long_

_many died of starvation_

_many many died_

_we survived, we live_

_we will always live_

_there will be more, soon_

_five planetary rotations there will be many more_

_food minds we kept will be changed_

_we will make them new_

_make them be more of us_

_new ones will take pretty hosts so bright in your thoughts_

_and the mind that stayed with his flesh after feeding_

_and we will all feed until this planet is dead_

_like dinselah_

_like tri'questa_

_like so many worlds_

_**NO!**__ I won't let you have Donna __**OR**__ Jenny __**OR**__ Jack! And I won't let you kill everyone on this planet, much less anywhere else!_

_silly time mind, you cannot stop us_

_you will see_

_and when you accept that, you will merge with us_

_become us_

_forever_

_I refuse! I won't give in, no matter what!_

_you will have no choice_

_you will see_

_you will learn, time mind_

_so much left to teach you..._

As the Wraiths kept whispering at him, the Doctor slowly and very carefully separated part of his consciousness from the rest of himself. Leaving that majority behind to occupy his unwanted controllers, he slipped deeper into his very self, the roots of his psyche. An unknown amount of time later, he finally eased this one free fragment of himself into contact with the one constant throughout his lives. A constant he had been managing to guard and protect from the Wraiths even more than the means to touch the only other Time Lord mind in existence.

Touching the TARDIS, even from this incredible distance, gave him strength to hopefully carry on until he could be rescued from this hell he'd managed to trap himself in. But he couldn't keep his contact with the Old Girl for very long - only long enough to leave her a message to give to Jenny. A warning of the Wraiths, of what might happen if he couldn't be freed from them...and a plea for forgiveness, for leaving this horrible burden on her young shoulders.

Reluctantly he slipped away from his link with his home, his ship, and returned to the rest of himself to be continually bombarded by the Wraiths and their attempts to coax him into blending with them as the suns slowly traversed their paths along the sky. As long as he could keep saying 'no', he could still be freed.

But woe to the universe if he finally tired enough to say 'yes'.

* * *

><p>"It's a blue box." Marks said, staring at the TARDIS. "You cannot seriously expect us to believe you lot travel around in that!"<p>

"No, she's the TARDIS," huffed Donna. "She just looks like a blue box cos her chameleon circuit's shot. Which is a good thing in this case - can you imagine trying to find the right rock in all of this?" She waved a hand at the boulders scattered around the landscape. Behind her, Jack opened the door and let Jenny inside so they could find some antigrav clamps to make moving the TARDIS less cumbersome.

"So..." Fielding said, after staring inside a moment. "I'm going to guess that we can't actually use this ship as a ship, if they're gone for antigrav clamps. Out of fuel?"

"Nah." Donna would have said something else, but a shout from within the TARDIS distracted her. "Sorry, back in a moment." And she whirled about and darted within the TARDIS, leaving the Patrol plus one to stand about on guard outside. Or hopefully on guard - who knew what was going through their minds when confronted by a box that was much bigger on the inside.

Inside, Donna saw exactly why Jack had yelled for her - Jenny was on her knees, bent so that her forehead was touching her thighs, and had her hands buried in her hair. "Jack? What happened?"

"I don't know, Donna. She stopped to stroke the console, like the Doctor does all the time, and then she gasped and collapsed. And she wouldn't respond to me."

"Bugger. Well, go on and try and find those clamps, cos we still have to try and move the TARDIS. I'll see if I can coax Jenny out of this state...might just be the fact she's got a copy of her dad's mind, but hasn't had any personal experience with the TARDIS." She didn't know why she was sending Jack off - it just felt like the right thing to do. Probably the TARDIS nudging at her, but she was used to that. Especially for when the Doctor was having nightmares...and given the state he was in right now, and his link to the TARDIS, Jenny might have caught the edges of that mess, which was the biggest nightmare ever.

Once he'd gone off further in, she knelt beside Jenny and rubbed her back. "Come on sweetheart, it's all right. Whatever it is, you're not alone." Donna sighed and did the best she could to cuddle and reassure Jenny, and wished that she wasn't so bloody ordinary. If she was the least bit special, there'd be something she could actually _do_.

A few moments later, Donna felt Jenny stirring under her hands and helped her sit up. "Good, you're back. What happened, Jenny? Why did you collapse like that?"

"I collapsed?" Jenny blinked at Donna, then took in her position - on her knees by the console. "I did collapse - that's weird." She blinked a few more times, then gave Donna a wan smile. "The TARDIS...she's a bit overwhelming. Especially when she's worried sick about Dad. Most especially given the tone of the message from him."

"You're kneeling there and telling me you collapsed because the Doctor managed to talk to the TARDIS from wherever he's at?" Donna frowned, then sighed and shook her head. "Never mind, I do remember he's capable of a lot more than he shows. Silly spaceman - isn't like I've ever thought of him as human, after all."

"Yeah, he sent a message." Jenny pulled herself up with the aid of Donna and the console, then sat on the jump seat. "Ooh, head's still a bit spinny. I have to search the copies of his memories I have though, to understand what he sent about the whispers. But...oh Donna, he's _so_ tired, and so hurt, and disgusted with himself and...and...so afraid..." Jenny sniffed hard, trying not to cry, but Donna's comforting hug nixed that notion. Tears fell like rain for a minute or two, but she couldn't indulge herself as long as her emotions wanted her to. She had to stop crying and figure out how to get her dad free of monsters who hadn't been active for aeons without letting them slip into anyone else. At least she had a bit of Dad in her head to help her figure out how to do it. And magnificent, warm, loving Donna to boost her spirits until she could get it done.

* * *

><p>A long time later, a few hours before the setting of the suns, the Wraiths took the Doctor's body running through the desert again. They ran for over thirty minutes before they crossed the path of a small transport, which immediately turned in pursuit.<p>

Trapped in the Wraiths, the Doctor was sick with knowing what would happen when the guards caught him up, yet simultaneously giddy with the anticipation of what would happen just afterwards. His mind writhed in an agony of indecision as his body slowed to a halt, and he desperately tried to regain control of something, _anything_ he could use to warn the poor, stupid humans to run far away before they were killed! If he could just choke out a few words, he could possibly save their lives! Not to mention, not have to suffer that disgusting, unspeakable glee and lust for more death and feeding.

But it was no use - the Wraiths outnumbered him and were simply too strong to wrest any control from, twined in and about him as they were. And this time as they fed, he could sense something of what those guards had been, had done, and had wanted to do. This time, despite his thoughts and goals of just a few minutes ago, he didn't even try to pull away from the fringes of the horrible pleasure of the Wraiths feeding on their victims' slow dying, ending with the trapping of their minds.

Because this time one of them had wanted to hurt Donna, and the other only spoke against it because the punishment would outweigh the pleasure of hurting her. This time he felt a vicious and vindictive satisfaction at the ending of two who would have taken great pleasure in hurting and humiliating his best friend.

_They deserved to die, for wanting to hurt my Donna._

_yes time mind_

_stupid ones deserved to feed us_

_you see now, you begin to understand_

_begin to feed with us_

_stupid ones would hurt the pretty ones_

_we will keep the pretty ones safe_

_pretty ones will be us too_

_pretty ones will be safe forever_

_if you just stop fighting, you will be us forever_

_you will be safe forever too_

_...no...I can't...Donna and Jenny deserve to be themselves..._

_pretty ones will be themselves_

_freedom will make them fully themselves_

_freedom to be us, be with us_

_to feed_

_to live forever_

_always together us and you and the pretty ones_

_until time stops_

_Stop it! Please, just stop! They'll suffer so much if you possess them...please, leave them alone. Please..._

_silly time mind_

_cannot touch them yet_

_not enough of us_

_soon though_

_soon they will be us too_

_nothing can stop us_

_no nasty ones left to stop us_

_and you cannot stop us_

_you will soon be us_

_not much fight left to you, time mind_

_you will be us and we will roam and feed forever_

* * *

><p>It was a quiet drive back to the section of cliff where the Doctor had disappeared into, and Jenny immediately hopped out and went to investigate the cleft. Donna huffed and muttered "just like her father", and followed, which left Jack and Marks at the transport.<p>

"Not following them?" Marks asked as Jack watched the two women investigating.

"Not yet. I trust they'll have the sense to either stun him or turn tail and run if he's there. But if it's a passage," he sighed and slid out of the transport as Donna waved at him, "which it is, well, we have to see where it leads. And I don't dare let them wander off alone - they're guaranteed to get into trouble if I do." He looked over his shoulder at Marks and quirked a crooked smile. "Hate to leave you alone, but the trail might take us pretty far."

Marks checked the dash readings one more time, then shook his head. "Should've recognised this area last night, even if I've never come on it from this direction - through that cleft is where the Stamfords' operation is hiding their hijacked ships. I'll just circle around to the bigger gap we found and pick you lot up there. Besides, I've got the sensor suite - nothing living can come close enough to bother me without an alarm going off. And I'll stun the poor sod if he does show up. Keep the comm-unit on and open though, so I can hear if you yell for help while I'm following along." Marks made a twist of lips that might have been a smile, then snorted. "Go, Harkness, before that ginger comes back and drags you."

"She would too," Jack managed his first real chuckle since the whispers had killed him and tried to steal his mind, then jogged off to join Donna and Jenny, leaving Marks to circle around with the transport.

* * *

><p>Once through the tight squeeze of the cleft, the three of them stood in the narrow band of shade at the bottom of the cliff and stared at the sight before them. Ships upon ships; all smallish, all capable of being crewed by one or two people. And they were all stood there in that cliff-walled sand patch like they were for sale, just waiting for customers to arrive before a slimy used-spaceship salesman would pop up out of nowhere.<p>

"This is going to make it trickier," Jack muttered, eyes flashing back and forth, watching for movement in the artificial shade of the hijacked ships.

"Like a bloody used car lot it is," Donna said, shielding her eyes from the suns' glare off all the ships. Even her sunglasses didn't help much. "So, which way Jenny?"

Jenny looked up from the ground where she'd been studying the faintest of trails, then pointed. "That way." Straight into the maze of ships, but there was a trace of a trail that they could follow. Unless the breezes had blown it away further along.

"Blimey!" Donna exclaimed as they rounded one ship to see a somewhat useful pathway leading between partially organised ranks of starships. "How many people have the Stamfords kidnapped to fill their mines?"

"Lots," Jenny replied, then ran off towards one of the smaller abandoned ships. "My ship!"

Donna followed right behind, shouting at Jenny to be careful and watch out, and missed Jack updating Marks on where they were. She caught up with Jenny as the hatch opened, and stepped inside with her. "Kind of small, innit?"

"Well, it was only just me, hauling delicate cargo from point to point while I tried to find you and Dad. And I didn't really need much space for just me. Got this baby after solving a nasty little terrorist problem on Helpah V. A reward for saving half the planet...and I had to bargain them down from something a lot bigger." The reply trailed behind her as Jenny opened the door to what was apparently the one room she used for everything not involving ship functions or piloting, and dove in with a yip of glee.

"You've been busy since we last saw you. Nice and neat in here - I'd have thought those vultures would've tossed the place looking for valuables." Donna said, looking around. There were a few holograms on a shelf, a food-replicator thingy on some cabinets near a sink, and a couple of footlockers by a bunk. And a door that probably lead to some sort of loo or something similar.

"Just clothes and souvenirs in here. Not much value at all for those pirates, considering I didn't have a cargo when I stopped here for fuel." Jenny replied, a bit muffled as she was half-in one of the footlockers, hauling clothes out. "Oh, I've been _itching _to get out of these clothes!"

"I can believe it," Donna shook her head and sighed. "But let's wait a bit, yeah? Won't do much good without a bath too."

"Oh I know that," Jenny grinned and started hauling objects out of the other footlocker, wrapping them in her clothes and packing them in a duffel. "But it's something to look forward to."

"Course it is," Donna tensed and turned at the sound of footsteps, then relaxed when she saw it was just Jack. "There you are - I was starting to get worried."

"Just updating Marks. He's just about to the larger entrance to this place and he'll meet up with us in about ten minutes," he said, casting an experienced eye around the room. "Comfy," he commented.

"And nothing's going to happen in here either, Mr. Flirt-tastic." Jenny huffed as she packed away the holograms.

"Hey, I was just saying! I've been in ships that had lots less personal space - this one's actually quite luxurious!" Jack raised his hands in placation and attempted a charming smile. As if he'd do more than flirt with the Doctor's daughter - after all, he'd seen the Oncoming Storm - he didn't need to see how much worse the Oncoming Dad could be.

"Really?" Jenny raised a sceptical eyebrow. "Name one."

"Chula warship," was Jack's quick reply. "Lost it when I met your Dad. All I had in that one was a cockpit and a fold-out bunk in the passageway. And let's not even talk about the personal hygiene cupboard." Jack flashed a wry grin and shrugged. "This is actually palatial in comparison, but it's the personal touches that make it comfy."

"Oh. I suppose this really would be comfortable in comparison then." Jenny nodded and shouldered her duffel. "Well, all done here! Let's get back to figuring out why the whispers brought Dad to this impromptu spaceport for hijacked ships!"

Donna and Jack stepped aside to let Jenny through, and before they followed, Jack threw a concerned look at Donna. "She's starting to act more like the Doctor."

"Yeah, a bit. But...what was in my head, well, it was a complete copy of the Doctor's mind, up to the moment he sent that regeneration energy into that hand of his. And she's gone and half-submersed herself in that template, so she can figure out how to free him. I just hope she hasn't let herself get overwhelmed by her dad's mind in the attempt." Donna rested her hand on Jack's arm a moment, then let her hand slide down to his to give it a quick squeeze. "Hopefully she'll be able to be properly herself once we've got himself back. Meanwhile," Donna smiled crookedly and waved a hand at the door. "we'd best get moving before she starts doing something _really_ Doctorish. Like going off without us."

"Can't have that," Jack chuckled and followed Donna out.

"Honestly," Jenny huffed as they caught up with her. "What took you two so long? I was almost ready to head off without you!"

"Ease up there," Jack raised a hand in defence. "Just wanted a quick word with Donna - we've been rushing so much I haven't had the time to hear for myself that she's really okay."

"Oh, and pat my bum, for which I should've smacked him one," Donna turned to glare at Jack, but winked with the eye Jenny couldn't see. "Still will if he does it again."

"Can I help it if you've got a gorgeous bum?" Jack grinned and winked back at Donna, then chuckled at Jenny's overly-emphasised throat-clearing. "Right, right, we're coming, don't get your knickers in a twist."

"You humans are so weird," Jenny muttered as she turned her attention back to figuring out where to go.

* * *

><p>A few minutes were spent in backtracking to pick up the trail they'd lost when Jenny'd bolted for her ship, and shortly after that they found themselves at the ship the Doctor had left a little while ago, and the trio cautiously entered the open airlock. "I wonder why the whispers brought the Doctor here?" Donna wondered, glad they had torches along, because the emergency lights were seriously about to burn out.<p>

"Maybe this is the ship that brought them here?" Jack shrugged and dodged a light fixture dangling from the ceiling. "I don't know," he finished as they entered a larger cargo hold than Jenny's ship had, and stepped aside to look at some of the intact crates. "Oh-ho, we've got smugglers! See those logos? Official Archaeology and Exploration stamps - commonly known as A&E - and...yeah, a university imprint. Those crates are probably full of archaeological artefacts - there's a lot of money in artefacts on the black market. Bet the smugglers didn't expect the Stamfords though." Jack stood up and cast his eye over the dim cargo hold that Jenny was going further into, piled with crates both strapped down and tumbled about.

"So, it's a hijacked shipment of artefacts? Wouldn't that have been reported to the Patrol?" Donna asked, frowning in curiosity and losing sight of Jenny.

"Should've been, but if I recollect the time period correctly, the artefact black market is so big, the Patrol can't really do much about it unless it pretty much happens right under their noses." Jack said and - realising Jenny had wandered off while he was talking - glanced around the cargo hold until he tracked her down. He and Donna made no delay in joining the adorable small blonde, who was picking up what looked like metal clamshells, both open and closed varieties. There were a lot more closed clamshells than open ones though, and for some reason Jack felt remarkably relieved about that.

When the pair joined her, Jenny looked up from the metal objects and tossed a closed one in her hand. "This is what the Wraiths hid in. The whispers. They're the Wraiths of Xel'xiori. He told the TARDIS, and she told me." She frowned at the tiny box she'd been flipping, then stuffed it into one of her pockets. "They hid in these things, and the botched landing shook them awake - all that were still alive, anyway. Not sure what they did after that...but at some point they have to have used the Thyrillium ore laced all through these cliffs to get to Sector 12."

Donna rested a hand on Jenny's shoulder and squeezed gently. "And after that...God, they must have thought they'd found the buffet. Oh sweetheart..."

Jenny smiled sadly at Donna and nodded. "I'm just glad I twigged onto staying in company as fast as I did. And that I never went off chasing them."

Both Jack and Donna shuddered at the thought of what could have happened then, and Donna pulled Jenny into a hug. "Me too, sweetheart, me too."

The comunit beeped then, and Jack spent a moment talking with Marks before shutting it off. "Unless there's anything left for us to find here, we'd best be off. Suns are starting to set, and I'd really rather we were all back in the shelter - or the TARDIS - before that happens."

The solemn trio left the half-wrecked ship and rejoined Marks at the bigger gap, there to get into the transport and return to where they'd moved the shelter and TARDIS to. Jenny, of course, stayed as far away from him as possible, but then they hadn't really cleared the air after last night, either. It didn't matter, so long as they could both pretend to professional attitudes.

* * *

><p>During the ride back to the new encampment, they found an empty transport, and the corpses of two men that Donna identified as Crandal and Vellick.<p>

Donna was rubbing her arms from the chill of remembered fear as she remembered the last time she'd seen the pair. "If that Crandal had been just a little less concerned with the consequences of breaking rules...well, I'd be aching and covered in bruises right now, and that's all I'll say. Not sure I'm glad they're dead though - don't think even they deserved to die like that."

"A real pair of prize winners then," Jack said, then joined Marks in searching the bodies while Jenny checked out the smaller transport. A few minutes and three disabled transponders later, she and Donna took off for the new camp in the guards' transport, and Marks and Jack followed behind in the Patrol's larger one.

Once they'd all returned and gotten settled in for the night, Jack turned his attention to Jenny. "So, what exactly are the Wraiths of Xel'xiori?"

Jenny sighed and stood up to face everyone - she knew she was going to have to tell them all sooner or later, she just wished it had been later. When she could comfort them with a plan to deal with the Wraiths as well. "Well, aeons ago there was a non-corporeal race of emotivores living in symbiosis with humanoid life-forms on Xel'xiori. The humanoids were peaceful because the emotivores fed off all the stronger and hostile emotions, which let the humanoids be free to live without fear, anger, hatred...all of those and similar ones that cause so much trouble. Then things changed - the emotivores discovered that there were even stronger, richer emotions released by sudden, painful death...so they started causing deaths all over the place. And at some point, though it wasn't recorded when, they also discovered that they could possess the people they'd lived in symbiosis with for so long. And that's when they started being called the Wraiths."

She made a face and shook her head. "With what was left of their humanoid companion-race, the Wraiths managed to leave Xel'xiori to feed on other races. They drained ten planets dry of sentient life before the Eternals caught on to what was happening and started hunting them down to destroy them. Well, mostly destroying them, although they did start out by trying to free the hosts. Which didn't work out so well...oh, yes they did manage to work out _how_ to free the hosts, but most of them committed suicide from what they'd done while being possessed. And the rest...well, the rest were insane. Hopefully we can get Dad free before he reaches either point. And it's a real pity that the Eternals didn't twig that the little creeps were hiding themselves away, otherwise we wouldn't have this mess now."

"So," Donna looked hopeful for the first time since Jenny had started with the history of the whispers...Wraiths. "There is a way to get the Doctor free of them."

"Not the way the Eternals did. They starved the Wraiths out of their hosts, and that wouldn't work on a Time Lord. We've got too much energy they could thrive on until they could escape, either with Dad or to another host...which would leave him as dead as the rest of their victims. So what we're going to have to do is build a Wraith-trap that can separate Dad from the Wraiths."

Here, she paused, sighed, and shot a regretful look at the Patrol triad. "I'm sorry, I really am. But...my second guess was right - the Wraiths are going to use the captured minds to breed more of their kind. Which gives us a pretty sharp time limit, as the message Dad managed to leave me intimated they were going to do it within five days. Well, four days and one night now." She sighed and leaned on the wall, staring into the distance. "So, I've got a very little time to figure out how to build a Wraith-trap that can skein out the not-Wraiths on its closing, as well as sieve them out of Dad. And I need to consult with the TARDIS for that."

Already near the door to the vehicle storage, where the TARDIS was parked, she simply slipped through it while everyone else was absorbing what she'd told them. At least she hadn't yet had to tell them that, being a trap, it would need bait.

That could wait until she actually had a trap.


End file.
